Relieved Rangers boss Michael Beale hailed his new side’s character as he survived a disaster on his dug-out debut.
But the recently-appointed Ibrox gaffer concedes he and his team have plenty of work to do as they seek to get their campaign back on track. Steven Gerrard’s former right-hand man has inherited from Gio van Bronckhorst a squad nine points adrift in the Premiership title race.
But it looked as though they were set to offer Celtic the chance to move further ahead at Pittodrie this weekend after allowing Kevin Nisbet to put Hibs back in front just 53 seconds after Ryan Porteous’ early opener. However, after being booed off at the break, there were only cheers at the end as a second-half display supercharged by Malik Tillman’s efforts helped the Light Blues recover, with goals from Ryan Jack and Alfredo Morelos making sure Beale got off to a winning start.
The former QPR manager said: “I thought we were a little bit anxious in the first half. I was delighted with the character in the group but I think we have a long, long way to get to where I want to get to.
“That wasn’t a good performance from us tonight. It was a decent second half but overall we know we need to improve hugely.”
Beale was forced to rejig his team after illness and injury cost him the services of Leon King and Antonio Colak. But he took the blame for the ropey first half display after admitting he’d put too much emotion into his pre-match team talk.
He said: “We lost Leon this morning (Thursday). He hadn’t slept all night with this sickness bug that’s going around.
“That wasn’t ideal because we lost Colak to a tight calf right at the end of training yesterday and they were both starting. You spend two weeks building it, everything is calm, and the last 24 hours have been a little bit all over the place.
“I had to ask John Lundstram to play out of position and he got on with it and did it. I’m wondering if I fired them up a little bit too much first half. I wonder if I gave them too much energy.
“I have to look at myself as well, maybe I spoke with too much emotion to them before the game and they went and played that way. We played a friendly against Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend and played really good football and you think you’re maybe a little bit further ahead.
“Coming back in I knew there had to be a little bit of time to get it where I wanted. The first half showed me I have lots of work to do.”
The Ibrox faithful turned out excited to see what Beale-ball has in store for them and the new gaffer reckons they got a better insight in the second half as he picked out Tillman - who had a hand in all three goals - and Alfredo Morelos for praise.
Beale added: “First half there wasn’t much space for Malik. We had to free him up second half, change one or two things to get round their block. I thought we did that well.
“It was fantastic feet from Malik and a nice pass from James Tavernier for Morelos’ goal. After that you saw all the confidence coming back and them looking like a good team.
“They’ve been through a lot recently and it looks like it’s going to take a bit of time to get where I want them to get to. I’m delighted for Alfredo to get the goal. Hopefully that’s the start of him turning the corner in terms of his form and removing some of the background noise.”
Beale also tipped his hat to kid defender Adam Devine as he deputised to World Cup star Borna Barisic before revealing it will be the new year before left-back rival Yidvan Yilamz returns to action. He said: “Ridvan had a very bad hamstring. It was diagnosed at 12 weeks and we’re six our seven into that.
"It’s not ideal obviously with Borna going away. That gives an opportunity for young Adam Devine and I thought he took it tonight."
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