Michael Beale felt Rangers could have scored eight in thrashing of Hibernian

Posted Thursday, March 09, 2023 by PA

Michael Beale claims Rangers could have scored eight before settling for a comprehensive 4-1 cinch Premiership hammering of Hibernian at Easter Road.

Connor Goldson put through his own goal after eight minutes but the Gers fought back almost immediately with a James Tavernier penalty and an Antonio Colak strike before the break.

Fashion Sakala drove in a third before Croatia striker Colak quickly grabbed his second and it could have been more.

Beale pointed to the 3-0 win over Hearts at Tynecastle in February by way of comparison and said: “It was very equal to the last time that we were in Edinburgh across the city.

“The energy was right from the first minute, I thought the front three pressed really well, the midfield backed it up behind and the one poor moment on the night was how we defended the set play.

“Our organisation was wrong for the first goal but after that, and even before that, I thought some of our play was good. Certainly after that we were excellent.

“We scored four and probably should have scored double that and that is not being disrespectful. We missed big chances tonight.

“(We) had some fantastic play and the energy was good. That all comes from the out of possession stuff, really.”

Beale has only lost one game – the Viaplay Cup final to Celtic – since taking over as Gers boss last November.

Asked how important the out of possession work was, he said: “Away from home if we’re defensively strong and we regain the ball in interesting areas we can punish teams, that was maybe the story of the game.

“Defensively, as impressive as we were with the ball, it all came off the work ethic of the whole team, the whole 10 outfield players pressing, running and moving together.

“We won a lot of the duels in the game and it left Hibs a little bit vulnerable.

“We could have been more ruthless but in a professional game when you score four goals away from home you shouldn’t be moaning, you should be happy your team have scored that many.”

Before the match the Edinburgh club paid tribute to late owner Ron Gordon who died last month with a rendition of club anthem ‘Sunshine on Leith’.

Hibs boss Lee Johnson claimed that helped his players get off to a good start before it fell apart and he called for his squad to step up in the big games.

He said: “It was a brilliant start. You could feel the emotion in the stadium and I think the boys fed off that, and then very quickly we showed too much naivety and a lack of technical quality.

“It was a bit hot potato in terms of the ball and we’ve been so confident and so settled but you’re moving up a level when you come up against a team like Rangers.

“You’ve got to be brighter in your mind, your touch has to be softer, you’ve got to know your next pass that little bit quicker and all around the pitch we were nowhere near good enough.

“You have to give credit to Rangers – they were snappy, they were on us, I thought Ryan Kent was outstanding in terms of running the game from that central area.

“Our players need to step up in these games. We’ve conceded chances and goals of our own doing.

“In these games you have to be smarter and you have to know when to control the tempo, when to speed it up.”