Michael Beale fires warning to Rangers subs - 'they weren't in tune with rest of team'

Beale questioned his use of substitutions on an afternoon when his side took the lead in added time of the opening period through one of those in Mallik Tillman, a surprise early replacement for the injured John Lundstram. Pegged back midway through a meandering second period through failing to defend a short corner headed in by Jordan White, they claimed the three points courtesy of a deflected Borna Barisic free-kick in the 75th minute.

“I have to assess my own part to play in the game today because I’m trying to keep one or two players happy or engaged,” he said, the win giving him an 11th success in his 12-game run without defeat. “Obviously, making five subs you don’t always have to do that. I wouldn’t say they played for themselves but they weren’t in tune with the rest of the team. I’m showing a lot of faith in people and maybe that disjointed the performance a little bit as well. I need to pick a team that’s balanced and boys are going to have to fight it out. We’ve got a lot of good footballers now and if you come off the bench you have to help the team be better. It’s about making Rangers a stronger team on the pitch. We have a lot of players vying for four positions in the attacking area right now.

“I thought it was the third game in another week where we’ve got three wins. That’s the most important thing. We’re still searching for a performance, when the team are here at Ibrox, where we take our chances. Some of our football again first half today was very good but again we were fussy in the final third. If you think about how ruthless we were on Wednesday [in the 3-0 win away against Hearts at Tynecastle], how clinical we were at times. I think we had people taking two, three, four touches in and around the box when we should be getting our shots off. We made the game more difficult than what it was, defensively.”