The Michael Beale era has now earned three Rangers wins out of three after a fairly uninspiring 1-0 win over Ross County.
The Govan side were worthy winners and while there was no more heart attack stuff after the stress of Pittodrie on Tuesday night, this was devoid of pretty much any entertainment bar John Lundstram's goal. County's game plan was clearly to frustrate Rangers and play on the break, which looked like being moderately successful early on.
But their threat was short lived and pretty much ended after they went 1-0 down. Rangers had chances late on to make things even more comfortable, but wasted them. Better teams will punish them, and the punters will want a bit more style to go with the results before too long. But points are the priority right now with that Celtic clash looming in the New Year and a nine point gap to try and whittle down.
After a couple of half chances for Rangers, Jon McLaughlin had to look lively to prevent them falling behind on 20 minutes. A deep cross ti the back post wasn't dealt with by Ben Davies, allowing George Harman to head towards goal from close range. His downwards header was on target, but the Rangers keeper threw out a left-leg to ensure the game remained goalless.
Another warning came soon after. Owura Edwards burst free down the right and drove into the box. He aimed for the far corner, but dragged his effort across goal and wide from a tight angle. Despite County arguably creating the better opportunities, a Christmas cracker from Lundstram gave Rangers the lead their relative control of the game deserved. He received possession around 20 yards out and took a touch before firing a crisp left-foot strike in off the post that Ross Laidlaw couldn't get near.
Adam Devine was allowed to patrol the left hand side without much in the way of a challenge during the first half. He bombed on and pulled back for Sakala after the break, but his effort was sell stopped by Laidlaw to deny the visitors a second.
Ryan Kent finally sparked into life after 72 minutes. He spun infield and made his way towards the box before teeing up Rabbi Matondo with a clever reverse pass. But the Welsh winger produced something that was neither a shot or a cross and it drifted harmlessly wide.
After sending a tame effort well wide after he first came on, Alfredo Morelos saw things open up for him late on. He was only able to shoot straight at Ross Laidlaw however, with his customary goal up in Dingwall eluding him. A rebound from a Rabbi Matondo shot fell for him, but he would have been doing well to react quickly enough to turn it home in stoppage time.
Matondo was guilty of an even bigger miss as the game ticked towards its conclusion. He raced through with no-one near him, a seemingly simple task ahead of him to seal the points. He tried to round Laidlaw though, and the County keeper produced a last-ditch challenge any of his defenders would have been proud of, meaning Matondo copped a fair bit of stick from the travelling support.
Morelos benched
Michael Beale hinted that the Colombian might not start after admitting he'd been playing through the pain barrier recently. With Antonio Colak and kemar Roofe not yet fit, the Gers started without a recognised striker. Wideman Fashion Sakala led the line and had a couple of decent efforts that were well stopped by Laidlaw.
Morelos entered the fray in the second half but in truth, had even less impact than the man he replaced. With Colak and Roofe due back against Motherwell, El Bufalo might find himself riding the pine again before too long. Despite netting the winner against Hibs, his performances haven't impressed upon his manager that he should be the man with the jersey up front.
Case for the defence
A first clean sheet for Beale will be welcome. After seeing the pendulum swing both ways against Hibs and Aberdeen, a quieter night at the office before Christmas won't have proved too much of a hardship for the Rangers manager.
He referenced before the game that this was the first time he was able to name two natural centre backs in his starting XI. Both Connor Goldson and Ben Davies will need time to fully regain their match sharpness, but there was generally a more solid look about Rangers with those two in the heart of the backline. Davies was caught out on a couple of occasions early on, but Rangers never really looked threatened the longer the game went on.
Bealeball
It's early days, but exactly how Rangers want to play remains unclear. The end-to-end chaos we've seen in the previous two games was absent. Rangers were more solid, but Ross County less ambitious than Hibs or Aberdeen.
This had the feeling of one of Gio van Bronckhorst's later displays. In fairness, this was the second long away trip in four days under a new boss, so understandable. But the games are coming thick and fast before the next break, and it may be that Beale is all about the points until then, when he can bring in new players and properly implement a more obvious style change.
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