Beasley is back in blue heaven

Published on Monday 21 December 2009 09:52

DAMARCUS BEASLEY claims Rangers can get "much better" after they thrashed Motherwell 6-1 to continue their impressive scoring run.

Rangers have now struck 15 times during four consecutive Clydesdale Bank Premier League victories, a run which has left them four points clear of Celtic.

The rejuvenated Beasley was on target for the second game running and both Kenny Miller and Kyle Lafferty struck doubles at Ibrox while Kris Boyd also got himself on the scoresheet.

But Beasley said: "We still have Pedro Mendes and Mo Edu in the treatment room so we can get a lot better.

"We are not complacent, we're all striving to get better.

"We will enjoy the win but we have work to do and we're not even close."

Beasley again shone on the right flank as he continues to relish his return to the team after initially failing to win his place back following knee and hamstring injuries.

The United States international recently admitted he would need to leave the club in January to keep his chances of playing in the World Cup finals in South Africa next year alive. Then he felt he was stuck on the sidelines, but he sees no need to depart now.

"The gaffer and I had a talk," Beasley said.

"I just needed playing time and he understood that, it was a man-to-man talk. Now he's giving me a chance to play. I never wanted to leave the club, I just wanted to play.

"Obviously the World Cup is in the back of my mind but we're not there yet.

"At the moment I'm on the outside looking in so I'm just enjoying playing for Rangers and trying to retain the SPL title."

Rangers were of course further boosted by Celtic's defeat against Hearts yesterday but manager Walter Smith knows they could not face a more difficult festive programme with games against Hibernian, Dundee United and Celtic coming up.

"The next three games will go a long way to see how the season pans out, Smith said. "They will be a big test for the players. It's important we keep going the same way, we are creating more opportunities now."

Motherwell have now lost three consecutive matches after a good start to the campaign and captain Mark Reynolds said they must show strength to recover.

"We were all over the place, we were poor individually, we were poor collectively," the 22-year-old said.

"Two of the goals just came down the middle, that's schoolboy defending, that's stuff you learn when you are nine or ten.

"The boys are all devastated and it will be a test of our character next week to see how we bounce back.

"It's hard to take a result like that when you have played three or four years in the game, but when you're just in it's even harder."

Manager Jim Gannon was happy to welcome back fit-again defender Shaun Hutchinson, who headed home Well's consolation goal.

And he was keen to play down the significance of the result to guard against his young team becoming demoralised.

"That's why we have been talking about performances rather than results over this period," Gannon said.

"When you play Hibs away, Celtic at home and Rangers away you know results might not be positive and you prepare the players for that mindset.

"We'll reflect and look at the video and talk through things and hopefully they will learn from it."