Ben Davies settles Rangers goal debate with Abdallah Sima as he names Michael Beale tweaks sparking Ibrox improvement

Rangers have never lost a league game in which Ben Davies has partnered Connor Goldson at the heart of the defence.

European defeats and a couple of cup losses to Celtic may be a stain on that particular CV but so far it has been Premiership perfect for the pair of Englishmen in the 19 league games they’ve played together since Davies arrived from Liverpool at the start of last season. It hasn’t been all plain sailing for the 28-year-old with injury and inconsistency peppering his first campaign in Scotland, but since being restored to the Rangers team last weekend against St Johnstone, Davies has played his part in two wins and two clean sheets.

He even might have scored the winning goal against Real Betis on Thursday night as his team repaired some early season damage with a fabulous Europa League win over the Spaniards. Davies gave up his claim to the close range strike in favour of Abdallah Sima, insisting the clean sheet was more important to him and having put that matter to bed, immediately set his sights on another one against Motherwell at Ibrox. Stuart Kettlewell’s side is one of three sitting above Rangers in the table and the defender knows his team will have to hit the levels they found in the second half against Betis if they are to leapfrog the Lanarkshire outfit.

And he is determined to make home advantage count with three games coming up in a week in Govan, with Livingston visiting in the League Cup on Wednesday, followed by Aberdeen. Davies said: “Thursday night against Real Betis was a really big step in the right direction. You can see the crowd when they are with the team. They are incredible.

“They really spur you on and we are really going to need them in the games that are coming up. It’s one of