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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Ben Banks

Michael Beale sends Rangers players blunt future warning as he vents 'you can't turn up 30 minutes into a cup final'

Michael Beale says it's either shape up or ship out after Rangers suffered Hampden heartbreak against Celtic in the League Cup.

Kyogo's double put the holders into a commanding position and Alfredo Morelos' strike proved to mean little to the end result. Beale took over as boss in the winter and has won almost all of his games in charge, but the two he hasn't have both come in painful fashion against Ange Postecoglou's Premiership champions, a 2-2 draw at Ibrox and now this loss.

Speaking to Sportsound, the Rangers manager was asked about previous quotes indicating he was unsure 'who is staying or who's not' with some big calls to be made between now and the end of the season, and he sent a firm warning to his men. He said: "For players in contract and out of contract. These are the days you are judged on here at Rangers. These are the days I will be judged on as a manager and it's important we provide for the fans. If not, other people come and have a go don't they? I don't want to go overboard on it, I think since I've come in we've done some really good things, but you learn a lot today."

It was the opening 30 minutes that disappointed the Rangers boss, who added: "We didn't start the game well. I think that was clear to see, it took us too long to find our rhythm in our football and get up to the speed in the game.

"Fair play to Celtic, I thought they started the game well and I thought we were going to get away with getting into half-time without conceding, but we didn't and that was disappointing. We came out in the second half much improved in our energy, not always our quality, but the energy and we had a big moment where we should have scored on the rebound of Ryan's shot - if he had, that would've been a momentum changer.

"Our mentality after conceding the second goal was magnificent. We huffed and puffed, but we couldn't find our moment on the day.

"I said to the players, that was a harsh game of football, but you can't turn up 30 minutes into a cup final against your biggest rivals. We didn't have enough today.

"I am wondering where that is at the start of the game (head of steam). If we have that in us, where is that at the start of the game, and it's something for us to go back and look at."

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