Motherwell vs Rangers - Match Review

Motherwell 2 – 2 Rangers

Fir Park | Sunday 29th 2024 @15:00

Dave Cornish

As the dust settles on yet more dropped points, fan anger inevitably turns on the team and manager once again. After a poor start to the season, we looked to have stumbled onto a setup that worked but in an almost inevitable turn of events this was ditched and the results have been expected. A 2-1 loss to St Mirren has been followed up by a 2-2 draw against Motherwell in todays SPFL fixture.

It's fair to say the fans worry started early for this one. As Rangers released the team sheet, fans were amazed and not in a good way. Many had predicted after a stuttering performance in Paisly, that Clement would revert to what had been working and we would see a front line of Cerny, Hagi, Danilo and Igamane.

Unfortunately those fans were wrong and the team for the day couldn’t have been further away from what was expected. Hagi missed out due to illness, Igamane and Cerny were the victims of our sports science team and instead we were treated to a frontline featuring Nigerian misfit, Cyriel Dessers, the man who wasn’t fit for any minutes in Paisley in Cortes and Championship journeyman, Kieran Dowell.

As the game kicked off Rangers showed intent but no real quality. They got forward a few times and Diomande had a shot from range, whilst Dessers shot straight at the keeper.

Unfortunately it was the usual away game script though with the initial attacks stopped by a goal on 16 minutes for Motherwell. At this point Rangers retreated a bit and Motherwell took command of the game.

The Motherwell goal was a familiar story for any Rangers fan this season with a long ball over the top, fed into Stamatelopoulos who converted low to Butlands left side. There was some controversy in this one with the ball striking an arm in the buildup. According to the guidance this would see the goal ruled out but following a VAR review the goal stood.

Whilst the decision can and should be called out as another example of rules not being followed when it comes to us, it can’t take away from the main point which is that we were ridiculously easy to play through, again!

Things weren’t great but they were about to get worse as Maswanhise, provider for the first, was fed the ball in the box, got turned and slotted a second past Butland.

At this point we were all waiting for half time, so Clement could make his customary substitutions to fix a broken lineup he fielded in the first place.

Clement duly obliged, removing Dessers and Dowell, replacing them with Cerny and Igamane and as expected, we saw the second half bounce.

Five minutes into the second half and we pulled one back with Igamane seizing on a rebound from a Danilo shot and putting the ball in the back of the net.

Cerny also looked dangerous, forcing a good save from Oxborough but Motherwell quickly showed they were still in the game with Watt forcing Butland to save. This led to a corner which saw Motherwell score again, although the goal was then disallowed for a foul on the Rangers keeper.

It wasn’t much later before Motherwell again had the ball in the net, this time from an attacking free kick, however it was clear they were offside in the buildup and this one was also ruled out.

Despite the two ruled out goals for Motherwell, it was Rangers who scored the next one that counted with Ridvan finding Igamane in the 68th minute who completed the comeback with his second of the day.

Rangers pushed for a 3rd but it wasn’t to be, despite an extra 10 minutes to try and find a winner. The game finished two a piece and in all honesty that was probably a reasonable result for both sides on the balance of play.

Perhaps most worrying for the Rangers fans wont be another two points dropped but yet another turgid, dull away game where we didn’t show up for the first half. It’s a very clear pattern now with us almost always making half time subs and looking for the fabled reaction but as in Paisley it was too little, too late.