Michael Beale feels the last time he saw a “really strong” Rangers performance at Ibrox was when he went as a fan.
Beale has presided over 10 wins and a draw since he took over in November and Rangers showed their continuing progression when they won 3-0 against third-placed Hearts in the cinch Premiership on Wednesday.
They have beaten Motherwell and St Johnstone at Ibrox since he took over and were several minutes away from beating Celtic before Kyogo Furuhashi netted an equaliser.
But Beale feels they have yet to hit the heights at home that he witnessed when he turned up to watch Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team beat Aberdeen 4-1 on October 29.
Weeks later Beale had replaced the Dutchman but he is still striving to get his side to meet the standards he witnessed from the stand.
The former QPR manager and Rangers first-team coach revealed his desire to treat the Ibrox fans after being asked whether there was any frustration among the players over their inability to cut Celtic’s nine-point lead despite consistently getting results.
“They can only do their job and they are doing it very, very well,” Beale said ahead of Saturday’s visit of Ross County.
“I haven’t spoken to them about whether they are frustrated, I have just spoken to them about playing the next game.
“I think people outside of our club were waiting for us to slip up on Wednesday, so it was important that we laid a marker down. And we did.
“All we can do is focus on the next game. I think the competition within the building is what’s driving the team at the moment. We are not looking too far ahead other than the next game and trying to improve on very specific areas of each game.
“Wednesday night was a step forward but I do feel we owe our home fans a good performance as well.
“I think it’s been a while, probably the Aberdeen home game, where we have put in a really strong performance. We have played well in moments, I thought against St Johnstone if we take our chances then everyone is saying it’s a different game.
“But in terms of the frustration, the frustration is probably there from before I came.
“I haven’t lived that frustration, I can only play the games that are in front of me now.”
County have only lost one of their last five league games and have moved off the bottom of the table in recent weeks.
Beale is well aware of the challenges that Malky Mackay’s team pose.
“The young player there, Yan Dhanda, I had at Liverpool, is in fine form at the moment, scored in the last couple of games,” he said.
“I think Malky does a really, really good job, his team try to play the right way, he has used the loan market and the free market really well and brought some interesting players into the league.
“It must have been really difficult for him to lose (Regan) Charles-Cooke and (Joseph) Hungbo at the end of last season but he seems to have recruited well.
“They have always given us a difficult game at Ibrox, I remember some difficult moments against them, and Malky always sets his team up to try to win the game.”
