Frustrated Michael Beale admits it’s Celtic’s title to throw away after Rangers failed to hold firm at Ibrox. But the new Gers boss reckons yesterday’s four-goal thriller will provide a much-needed wake-up call to his squad as he looks to shake some life back into the Light Blues.
Beale’s side were minutes away from snatching a win that would have cut Celtic’s Premiership lead back to six points. But Kyogo Furuhashi’s 88th-minute equaliser ensured it’s as you were in the title race - with the Ibrox boss confessing the Hoops remain the clear favourites to retain their crown.
Beale - whose side fell behind to Daizen Maeda’s opener before a mounting a sensational second-half comeback with strikes from Ryan Kent and James Tavernier - said: “That is the third time we have let in two goals (since I took over), so we are going to have to improve on that.
“Certainly in big games at home I am not sure we are going to be able to let in two goals, and not two the way that we did. That might seem harsh on the team but that is the reality.
“We are no further away than we were five games ago. The points are the same. There’s 18 games to play. It is Celtic’s to throw away in terms of the league but in terms of our mentality and where we are I think we are one or two steps ahead than we were a few weeks ago - but we need to be 10 more.”
Beale remains unbeaten as Gers boss five games in but has still to see his side put on a full 90-minute performance. They were certainly better after the break following another error-strewn first half but Beale hopes his side have now set a standard in the second period that they won’t slip from.
He said: “If we’re not moving in the right direction or improving I’ll be the first to put up my hand up. I think the biggest thing I have seen today is one or two players waking up for themselves and the standards this club needs for them in terms of effort and commitment.
“I said to them at half time just embrace the hard work, go where it hurts for each other that had to become a norm.”
Two slack passes from Alfredo Morelos and Tavernier allowed Maeda to stroke Celtic ahead inside five minutes. But surprise starter Fashion Sakala took his chance to impress his new boss, inspiring the turnaround as he teed up Kent to score before winning the penalty that saw Tavernier tuck home his 100th career goal.
Hailing the Zambian, Beale continued: “That was the Fashion Sakala that I saw on the video before we signed him. He likes this fixture. The same with Ryan.
“I asked the three forwards to go and cause some disruption and I felt in the second half Alfredo started winning more of the duels against the centre halves and that gave Sakala and Ryan more room. I thought the front three in the main did their job today.
“But we gave away two really bad goals. We started the game for four or five minutes really well and then gave away a terrible goal, everyone can see that. It took us 15, 20 minutes to shake that off.
“It was clear to everyone that Sakala’s pace was going to cause them some problems but we didn’t have to be so obvious in how we went there. We needed to make a few more passes. I thought from 30 minutes onwards we were decent in the game.
“But again we have conceded a really bad second goal. It was the first time in the game where we stopped doing what I asked them to do defensively.
“It’s disappointing because we were two or three minutes from winning the game but there were a lot of things in the performance that I needed to see. That’s the best performance since I came here.
"We were very unfortunate not to win the game. I wouldn’t say we were clearly the better team so a draw to some people’s eyes might be fair also.”
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