“Tell him that!” – Beale fires last words at Sutton

Michael Beale has said all he is going to, regarding the so called ‘feud’ with Chris Sutton.

Unsurprisingly, the Rangers boss was invited to comment on the recent retort from the former Celtic striker, in the aftermath of Rangers fine 0-3 victory at Livingston on Saturday afternoon.

He kept it short and sweet, refusing to waste further time on the matter, but responded with:

“I think we’ll leave that where it is. Listen, I love him as much as he loves me. Tell him that, thank you.”

Given the Viaplay Cup final is now upon us next week, the Old Firm showdown will likely see some form of fanning of the flames with Sutton’s contributions in the paper’s or if he is on duty for Viaplay at Hampden next week but there won’t be much more on the matter from Beale.

He has said what he needed to and rightly called out his adversary for the troll that he is.

More importantly, the convincing scoreline and dominance of the game today will have pleased Beale. There was a period of around 10 minutes in the second half at 0-1 when Livi were getting forward with a couple of half chances to equalise. It was important that Rangers capitalised to put the game beyond doubt and that is exactly what happened.

James Tavernier stepped up when required for the second time in the game, with his free kick to complete the brace coming after Kemar Roofe was very clever with his use of the ball. The Jamaica international was excellent, coming off the bench to make a key impact as well as helping himself with a trademark poacher’s finish.

It was another shining performance from Nicolas Raskin whilst Todd Cantwell had an interesting game in a deeper midfield role. He was solid out of possession as well as playing a few delicately threaded passes. The experience of the artificial pitch at Livingston will also have provided a further learning curve into the unique nature of Scottish football.

Overall, there was plenty for Michael Beale to be content with, which will hopefully be followed up by a clean bill of health for the Hampden showdown next week with questions to be answered on Malik Tillman, John Lundstram and Ryan Jack.