The Thistle Archive

Rangers scored either side of half-time to beat Partick Thistle in the Scottish Premiership. Myles Beerman, Jon Toral and Danny Wilson all threatened for the hosts before Kenny Miller headed them in front. Toral then scored from Emerson Hyndman's pass soon after the break. Hyndman, Martyn Waghorn and Miller had further efforts saved by Tomas Cerny, while the Jags rarely troubled their hosts. The Ibrox side, who are third in the table, are five games unbeaten under manager Pedro Caixinha and face Celtic in next Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final.

Alan Archibald's Jags will finish in the Premiership's top six for the first time and take on Hearts at Tynecastle in two weeks' time. After a quiet opening spell, the hosts gradually took control with teenage left-back Beerman having two efforts deflected away and Toral's shot cleared off the line by Mustapha Dumbuya. Wilson also tested Cerny with a header, the Thistle goalkeeper making a fine block. Miller had scored Rangers' opener in last week's 3-0 win at Aberdeen and it was down to the experienced striker to do so again, nodding James Tavernier's cross back across goal and into the net. Hyndman could have doubled the advantage but was foiled by Cerny. But the Czech keeper was soon beaten by Toral's strike, which followed some impressive set-up work between the Spaniard and Hyndman. Cerny later denied Waghorn and Miller to round off a fine individual performance.

Thistle's best efforts were a first-half Ryan Edwards shot and strikes by Chris Erskine and Kevin Nesbit in the second period but Rangers keeper Wes Foderingham had a much quieter afternoon than his opposite number. Caxinha's side will now prepare for back-to-back Old Firm matches, with next weekend's Hampden encounter followed by Celtic's league visit to Ibrox on 29 April. The win over Thistle kept Rangers within nine points of second-placed Aberdeen and took them nine clear of St Johnstone with five games to play. The sides finishing second and third will secure Europa League qualifying places for next season and the Dons can now finish no lower than third.

Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha:

This team is always ready to beat anyone and Celtic is going to be the next one. The approach to the game is going to be different - it's an Old Firm game, a knock-out game and I like the strategic side of the game, so I'm looking forward to preparing for it. I just hope to have 11 warriors starting the game. I am not totally happy about our performance defending. Normally, we see the result and we see zero goals in Kilmarnock, zero goals at Aberdeen and zero goals against Partick. But I know that we need to improve a lot in defending as a team and not only the back four or the goalkeeper himself. It's also true we are not letting the opponent create so many clear chances against us, which is good, but I want more, so I want more collective performances defending and need to keep working on it.

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald:

I'm frustrated by the level of our performance. Rangers were good, but we made it easy for them. Apart from the first 20 minutes, when we competed with them, our use of the ball was really poor. It showed that only 10 guys had trained during the week. That really hampered our preparations and, in the end, we looked like strangers when we were in possession. We are well aware of the danger of letting the season drift away now that we have achieved top six. We know they are hard fixtures, but you can still go and compete.

bbc.com

advertisement

25 WITHOUT A WIN : - (

.