Ben Davies has opened up on the Michael Beale half-time message that sparked the Ibrox turnaround as he insisted: 'The title race is the same as before'.
Rangers got off to the worst possible start in the Old Firm derby as sloppy play from Alfredo Morelos allowed Daizen Maeda to skip past James Tavernier and Connor Goldson before slotting beyond Allan McGregor with less than five minutes on the clock.
But the Light Blues hit back with a stunning turnaround in the second-half as two goals in six minutes turned the game on its head. First Fashion Sakala pushed the ball into the path of Ryan Kent who superbly curled an effort beyond Joe Hart before the skipper Tavernier smashed home high into the net from the penalty spot after Carl Starfelt was judged to have brought down Sakala in the box. Beale and Co looked like maintaining their 100 per cent record under the new boss but suffered late heartbreak as Kyogo Furuhashi rattled home with two minutes remaining to claim a share of the spoils in a four-goal derby thriller.
Davies said: “Since the manager has come in he’s made it clear we’re going in one direction and that’s forward. We’re not going to stand off anyone and we’re going to show who Rangers are.
“He wants to take us back to some of the performances the boys put in before (when he was here previously with Steven Gerrard). That’s what we’re trying to do going forward.
“The title race is the same as before the game. We had a chance to cut the gap and that would have been good but there is still a long way to go.
“We still have to play them again and there are a lot of games coming thick and fast. It’s the same as it was before – no closer, no further.”
He continued: “We struggled a little bit to get going. Not in terms of desire but to get our passing going, then towards the end of the first half we started to get a bit more territory and to play around their box a bit more.
“At half-time, the manager sat us down and put that belief in us that we could go out and perform better. We turned it around within five or six minutes of the second half which is really pleasing.
“We’re all disappointed that we didn’t get the win but I do think there’s signs that we’re going in the right direction. The belief was there from the start but it’s an Old Firm and it’s hard to get your passes together and get your foot in the game.
"The way that we started the second half was absolutely terrific and we showed what we can do. When you get to that late in the game and you’re winning, obviously that’s why we’re disappointed
“But we showed signs going forward that we’re going in the right direction. You can tell we’ve got some real quality players who can hurt any team and we showed that at times today.
"The manager put the belief in us. He just sat us down and said that we can do a lot better than we’re showing but we were together when we went into the dressing room, we were on the same page.
“Inside us, we all believed we could turn the game around – and we did that fairly quickly. But we’re just disappointed we didn’t see it through when we were that close.”
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