Rangers sack Beale after Aberdeen defeat

Michael Beale has been sacked as Rangers manager after Saturday's 3-1 home defeat to Aberdeen. 

The loss left Rangers seven points behind Celtic after seven games of the Scottish Premiership campaign.

Steven Davis will take interim charge, supported by Alex Rae and coaches Steven Smith, Brian Gilmour and Colin Stewart.

A club statement read: "Results this season have fallen short of what everyone connected to Rangers would expect. 

"Therefore, the decision was reached today to terminate the contract of the manager, as well as the contracts of coaches Neil Banfield, Damian Matthew, Harry Watling and Jack Ade. 

"The Rangers board would like to put on record their thanks to Michael and his staff for their efforts since joining the club last November."

Beale controversially left Queens Park Rangers in November to replace Giovanni van Bronckhorst and started with 13 wins out of 14 games. 

Although they've won four games in the league this term, uninspiring defeats to Kilmarnock, Celtic and Aberdeen were enough to end the 43-year-old's tenure. 

The biggest shock to Rangers' season so far was being beaten 7-3 on aggregate by PSV in the Champions League play-off round.

However, they did win their opening Europa League fixture against Real Betis. 

After the loss to Aberdeen at the weekend, Beale admitted that his side 'need to be better'. 

He said: "Everyone realises where we are, the standard and results need to be better. 

"We can't hide behind the fact that we won four games because today wasn't good enough."

Beale will not get the chance to redeem his early season stutter and Rangers will now look to appoint a successor to turn their season around.