Michael Beale has Rangers matching Celtic and the numbers show it's more than a new manager bounce - Keith Jackson

dailyrecord.co.uk:

It may have been Michael Beale’s turn to be a lucky man on Saturday. But just because the Rangers boss required a deflected winner from Borna Barisic to take all three points at home to Ross County, it doesn’t mean what’s been going on at Ibrox since his arrival has been happening by accident.That’s 28 points Beale has now returned from a possible 30 in his first 10 league games in charge since replacing Giovanni van Bronckhorst in the dugout.

By comparison, Van Bronckhorst had taken 33 from 15 games before the axe came down on the Dutchman’s head back in November.In percentage terms, Beale is matching Ange Postecoglou’s numbers - and the big Aussie has banked 70 from a possible 75 this season - by winning 93.33 per cent of the top flight points available to him.

Van Bronckhorst left town averaging 73.33 per cent.In other words, enough evidence is beginning to pile up to suggest that Rangers have got something more substantial than just a ‘new manager bounce’ out of Beale’s appointment.

It’s almost certainly too late to turn this season’s Premiership race into a proper title fight. Celtic’s stupendously ridiculous levels of relentlessness will see to that.In fact, the ease with which Ange Postecoglou’s side took care of their own business on a ploughed field in Perth on Sunday lunchtime underlines the monumental size of the task which Beale has chosen to take on.