RANGERS ARE NOW A WORK IN PROGRESS

Ibrox men stroll to victory but Beale knows he must rebuild

NINE wins out of 10 for Michael Beale since taking over. Todd Cantwell settled into the team with a satisfactory debut.

Glen Kamara looking more like a significant figure. And, yet, there is still the sense that Rangers are nowhere even close to where they need to be.

Even though it was the annual Armed Forces Day, Ibrox felt flat for this one. Rangers dominated the game and deserved their win through a James Tavernier penalty and a Kamara finish, but it wasn’t much of a spectacle.

If it wasn’t for the involvement of VAR, it would have been pretty dull indeed. Nicky Clark was sent off for Saints 11 minutes before the interval with the scoreline 1-0 for a high tackle on Ryan Jack.

And then Jack was fortunate to stay on the park after being booked for a foul on Adam Montgomery, with referee Willie Collum sticking by his decision after being directed to the pitchside monitor by VAR Nick Walsh.

Visiting manager Callum Davidson felt both calls were blatantly wrong. Beale took a different position, but perhaps the most interesting part of the Ibrox boss’ appraisal of the 90 minutes came in refusing to get carried away.

‘I was pleased with the amount of chances we created but not so much with our last pass or shot,’ he said. ‘If they go in, everyone says the performance is fantastic. But I thought, whether they go in or not, there were enough red flags to tell me I’ve got a lot of work to do.

‘I was expecting that. I’d like us to be more ruthless in the final third.’

To begin with, it was a fairly straightforward afternoon. Rangers had all the ball, Alfredo Morelos offered nothing to suggest he is worthy of a new contract, missing a number of chances, and then the first decision to be made over a handball in the box ended in a penalty kick.

With a quarter of an hour on the clock, a high cross sent in from the right struck the back of Connor Goldson and hit off James Brown’s outstretched arm. Sure, he couldn’t do anything about it but his arm shouldn’t have been there.

From the spot, Tavernier beat goalkeeper Remi Matthews.

Morelos should have wrapped it up shortly afterwards when being sent clean through by an excellent pass from Kamara — only to put his deeply unconvincing effort straight at the advancing Matthews and seeing it deflected wide.

It all then started to go a little bit nutty. 11 minutes before the break, Clark was sent packing for a high challenge on Jack at the halfway line that caught the Rangers midfielder on the shin.

His removal from the action was understandable, but it was the circumstances that were interesting. There was a very definite delay between the incident unfolding and Collum waving his red card.

It would have been easy to think that he had heard something through his earpiece. The big screen at Ibrox then confirmed the involvement of VAR. But Collum hadn’t gone to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.

It can only be assumed VAR Walsh had watched the incident after Collum had brandished the card and decided he was right, but there was confusion — and Saints boss Davidson’s booking for remonstrating with the referee appeared to confirm that. Minutes later, it looked like Collum would be sending off Jack, too. Perhaps with the red mist still clouding his mind and senses, the Rangers player jumped into a tackle on Montgomery in the Saints box and brought him crashing.

Collum initially dished out a yellow but the pictures seemed to show Jack catching his opponent’s ankle. Walsh told him to look at it again. That normally means one thing: he’s off. Yet, Collum studied the footage closely and opted to stick with his initial call.

The fact Beale duly hooked Jack for John Lundstram at half-time suggests he agreed with the view of most observers that Rangers had got away with one.

At that stage, the Ibrox outfit were still 1-0 up. Yet, they could easily have conceded an equaliser in time added on at the end of the first 45.

Dan Phillips, a strong performer in midfield, played Drey Wright through. He rounded goalkeeper Allan McGregor — and then stubbed his toe in the ground while trying to convert from a tight angle and fell over.

When that chance was squandered, it felt like a light going out for the visitors and, after Matthews had denied Ryan Kent with a decent save, Kamara put Rangers two up on 57 minutes with a nicely-worked strike. Cantwell marked his first appearance in a blue jersey with a slide-rule pass to Morelos, which the Colombian did well to flick first time into Kamara’s path. The finish was then simple and clinical.

Cantwell’s big bow came in a roving role. He offered some nice, tidy contributions. But considering his lack of sharpness — as evidenced by him being removed for Fashion Sakala just after the hour — it’s too early to make any big judgements.

‘I had proper goosebumps walking out for the first time,’ said Cantwell. ‘It was incredible, probably better than I had imagined it would be, and it is something I will hold with me for a very long time.

‘Sharpness-wise, I wasn’t there, but I need to get these minutes in. That is an absolute fraction of what I hope I can bring.’

Beale is excited by the prospect of getting Cantwell and Ianis Hagi on the field together. That didn’t happen yesterday.

Hagi made his first appearance in a year after cruciate-ligament damage to a thunderous ovation when coming on for Tillman on 72 minutes, but the Romanian’s availability offers more interesting options for switching things up in attack for the manager.

He also received a warm welcome back into the fray from Collum, who booked him for dissent.

McGregor was called into action on 66 minutes when saving low at his left-hand post from an Andy Considine header, but the game largely petered out.

‘Some of the approach play in the first half was very good but we failed to reward ourselves,’ said Beale. ‘Alfredo had three big moments in the first half. On another day, he could have had a hat-trick.’

Beale is right to be focused on the longer term. These games don’t matter. Even the cups don’t matter. Rebuilding a team that needs to be much better than this is the focus. RANGERS (4-2-3-1): McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Davies, Barisic; Kamara, Jack (Lundstram 46); Tillman (Hagi 72), Cantwell (Sakala 63), Kent (Wright 72); Morelos (Colak 72). Subs (not used): McLaughlin, Sands, Arfield, Devine. Booked: Jack, Tillman, Hagi.

ST JOHNSTONE (3-5-2): Matthews; Considine, Gordon, Brown; Wright (Wotherspoon 81), Phillips (Carey 81), Hallberg (May 74), Montgomery, MacPherson; Clark, McLennan (Crawford 89). Subs (not used): Parish, Mitchell, Bair, Murphy, O’Halloran. Booked: Matthews, Brown, Phillips. Sent off: Clark.

Referee: Willie Collum. Attendance: 49,672.