MICHAEL BEALE has labelled the Scottish Cup as a 'huge priority' for Rangers after seeing his side extend their unbeaten Premiership run.
An emphatic 4-1 victory over Hibernian on Wednesday night - earned thanks to an Antonio Colak brace and strikes from James Tavernier and Fashion Sakala - keeps Beale's side nine points adrift of Celtic in the top flight title race.
It was the most accomplished performance of the Englishman's tenure so far and Rangers should have won by a greater margin as they dominated an entertaining Easter Road affair.
The Scottish Cup quarter-final with Raith Rovers is next on the agenda this weekend and Beale has challenged his side to maintain the levels that they hit in the capital.
Beale said: "It’s a huge priority, every game is at the moment. I need to see certain things every game, I need to feel the energy in the group and in the style.
"A lot is said about style but I think it comes off the back of hard work, cohesion and organisation. [Wednesday night] is a real big step in the right direction, it’s now up to the players to stay there."
Rangers spurned a series of chances in either half on a night where Beale reckoned they could have scored eight times against Lee Johnson's side.
The Ibrox boss was delighted with the midfield pairing of Ryan Jack and Nicolas Raskin, while Todd Cantwell also impressed behind the front three of Colak, Sakala and Ryan Kent.
Beale said: "Away from home when teams come for us and open, Hibs tried to attack the game, if we’re defensively strong and we regain the ball in interesting areas we can punish teams, that was maybe the story of the game.
"Defensively, as impressive as we were with the ball it all came off the work ethic of the whole team, the whole outfield players pressing, running and moving together. We won a lot of the duels in the game and it left Hibs a little bit vulnerable.
"We could have been more ruthless but in a professional game when you score four goals away form home you shouldn’t be moaning, you should be happy your team have scored that many."
