By Craig Rae
Michael Beale admits he was more frustrated than anything else after yesterday’s 5-2 win over St Mirren at Ibrox.
A host of injuries ravaged the squad as Sakala and Lundstram came in for Jack and Kent in the only changes from last week’s derby defeat to Celtic.
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Many thought that St Mirren would play a low block but in fairness to them they came out and played some decent stuff with Curtis Main leading the line.
Rangers took the lead after some great build up play from Tillman and Morelos allowed Tavernier to cross to Cantwell who made no mistake as he made it 1-0 and finally scored his first goal at Ibrox.
Cantwell then became a bit of a villain as his lazy effort led to the counterattack that resulted in Mark O’Hara once again scoring against Rangers with an excellent finish, and the manager wasn’t pleased with the way the equaliser went in, calling it a ‘horror show’.
“We overindulged a bit, we became a bit tippy tappy, we forgot that when we lose the ball we have to go and press, and we became passive. I was really annoyed with the first goal, if you rewind back, we’ve got a 4 vs 3 in the attack and we’re very wasteful in that moment and our reaction was dreadful. From everybody, from Todd after shooting and from the reaction of people running back, it’s a horror show for us.”
Despite this, Rangers retook the lead early in the second half as Sakala nodded in from a Barisic free kick to take his league tally to eight for the season.
The performance was decent with Rangers probing but St Mirren always looked dangerous on the counter and it paid dividends when O’Hara struck once again after a deflection in the box allowed him to rifle home the Buddies’ second equaliser of the afternoon.
Dradtic action had to be taken and the manager did so by making three changes, replacing Davies, Sakala and Tillman with Hagi, Arfield and Kamara.
A short blitz of the St Mirren defence would soon occur.
Alfredo Morelos eventually found the net after a clever move allowed Cantwell to slip him through and the Colombian made no mistake to allow the customary knee slide to return to Ibrox – could this be one of the last ones we see?
A minute later Rangers made it four when Rabbi Matondo came on earlier and made an impact when he was played through and dashed down the left wing, crossing it back for Morelos to drill home for his second, the flag was raised for offside but a VAR check allowed the goal to stand with Matondo joining in Morelos for his knee slide this time – could this kick start a Rangers Revival for the Welsh Winger.
The icing on the cake came shortly after when a majestic 60 pass move was finished from Scott Arfield after some tidy work from Cantwell who got his second assist of the game, that, and his goal made him the clear Man of the Match for today’s game.
Whilst Rangers were defensively sloppy at times, the five-minute three goal blitz at the end of the game is what the fans want to see and possibly the first time that we have seen this under Beale.
Hopefully more key players return ahead of next Sunday’s big game at Pittodrie ahead of the game of the season at Hampden against the other mob.