Michael Beale feared Rangers lifetime of regrets if he got Malik Tillman Partick Thistle decision wrong

He only had a split second to make his mind up but knew he'd be left facing a lifetime’s worth of regrets if he called it wrong.

In the end, Michael Beale is more than content that he, Malik Tillman and his Rangers side will be able to live with how events played out at Ibrox last Sunday. The Rangers faithful are still split on the subject of whether their manager was correct to allow Partick Thistle their walk-in equaliser after Tillman’s controversial goal had put his team 2-1 up. It all came down to the silliest of misunderstandings.

The on-loan Bayern Munich kid was down on the ground injured, unawares that his colleague Antonio Colak had put the ball out so he could get treatment. When he leapt back to his feet to rob stunned Jags skipper Kevin Holt before scoring a goal that threatened a near riot had it been allowed to stand. All of a sudden the spotlight was on Beale but with the Ibrox crowd demanding their side show no mercy, Beale took a different tact.

His instantaneous instinct was that this is not how a Rangers team is supposed to behave - or win - before giving the thumbs up to Scott Tiffoney to walk the ball home and cancel out Tillman’s effort. Was the outcome messy? Undoubtedly - but at least it put a full-stop on the matter rather than leaving Beale and his team to spend the rest of their days rueing an on-the-spot judgement call.

“Last weekend I had to make that decision very, very quickly and think very clearly about this club and what it should stand for,” explained Beale, whose side eventually won through to the last eight of the Scottish Cup thanks to a late Connor McAvoy OG. "Could the ref have been clearer in that situation? Maybe. But I don’t want to put him under pressure either. I just think