Let’s be honest no one is beating Ange’s team- Beale’s big confession

Michael Beale has admitted that he requires favours from other teams to overtake Celtic in the race for the SPFL title.

After a couple of weeks of upbeat chat surrounding the new Ibrox boss it all gets real tonight when Hibs visit Ibrox.

That fixture shouldn’t cause too many problems but next week’s trips to Aberdeen and Ross County will give a truer reflection on whether the new manager bounce has impacted on Ibrox.

Asked about what was required to open up the title race Beale told the Daily Mail:

I think they need to start winning football matches, if I’m honest. All that (title) 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.

A year ago the gap at the top of the table was four points, a lot less than the challenge that Beale is taking on. While Giovanni van Bronckhorst went on a winning run Celtic drew 0-0 away to St Mirren before Christmas to go into the new year trailing by six points.

Using last year’s title collapse of largely the same group of players as inspiration for this season seems a strange move from Beale who arrives at Ibrox with just 22 fixtures on his managerial CV.