MICHAEL BEALE admits Rangers will need a helping hand from their Premiership rivals if they are going to reel in Celtic in the title race this term.
The new Ibrox boss will make his league debut in the dugout against Hibernian as Rangers begin life after the sacking of Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
The Dutchman left his side trailing nine points adrift of Celtic at the top of the table as a wretched run saw their ambitions of reclaiming the silverware all-but ended.
Beale got his reign off and running with a friendly victory over Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend but all focus is now on the title race in the second half of the season.
And he is fully aware of the size of challenge that Rangers face as they attempt to catch Ange Postecoglou's side and set up an unlikely fight to the finish this term.
"I think they need to start winning football matches, if I'm honest," Beale said when asked if his players believed they could still win the league. "All that talk is miles ahead.
"This time last year a similar points lead was overturned by more points than is required to turn this around.
"But let’s be honest about it. Ange and his team at the moment, no-one is beating them.
"So it’s important that, yeah, if we win our games and give ourselves an opportunity in the derbies to beat them. Great. But also we need some other teams to chip away at them as well.
"The players are human beings. At the weekend, I thought they looked very free and could have scored more goals.
"I think there will be a little bit more anxiety [against Hibernian], a little bit more tension in the air. I’ll wait and see what that does to one or two players.
"All we can do is win the next game in front of us. I could sit here and say “yes, we can get back in it” then tomorrow doesn’t go well and I’d look an absolute fool.
"I think at this moment in time, inside we are extremely ambitious. But what we have to do is perform well in each game.
"Over time, I think it will get better. That’s the idea. The style will become more clear, players will get more fit to the style.
"We’ll recruit players to the style and move forward behind a real strong idea of how I want us to play."
