By Alistair Aird
Philippe Clement has always said that the race for a title is a marathon. He will look at the standings in May when matchday 38 has been completed, but for the moment, he is steadfastly standing by his mantra of ‘one game at a time.’ But after today’s match against Motherwell, the games remaining would go into single digits. It was imperative therefore that the rich vein of form Rangers have shown stretched into the month of March.
All signs pointed towards a home win. Although they won home and away in the Premiership play-off final in 2015, Motherwell last defeated Rangers in a league fixture on Boxing Day in 2002 – James McFadden scored the only goal of the game – and you had to go back to May 1997 for their last league win at Ibrox. On that occasion, they pooped the party, inflicting a 2-0 defeat on a Rangers side that were looking for the elusive win they needed to seal a ninth successive league title. Fortunately, they got that a couple of days later thanks to a towering header from Brian Laudrup at Tannadice.
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In addition to talking about taking it step by step, Clement has spoken about the need to keep his players fresh. March will see Rangers play six games across three competitions, and the Belgian made changes at the back, in the middle and up top for this one. Ridvan came in for Barisic in the back four, while Nico Raskin, impressive as a sub midweek, was alongside John Lundstram in midfield. And with Oscar Cortes frustratingly ruled out for a long time, Ross McCausland was drafted in to play in the wide area.
Spearheading the attack was Cyriel Dessers. Clement has revived the career of so many players in this squad, but had you told someone back in October that Dessers would be one of them, there would have been scoffing all round. Many were labelling the Nigerian as among the worst signings ever made by Rangers, yet he has 13 goals in 24 appearances under Clement. That equates to 1,359 minutes of action, or a goal every 104.54 minutes. Impressive.
Motherwell had almost done us a favour when they hosted Celtic last weekend. A bullet from Blair Spittal had them 1-0 up at the break, and although the league’s second-placed side levelled matters early in the second half, the Steelmen looked to be holding firm until they conceded twice in stoppage time.
The three goals shipped added to the goal scored by Livingston midweek meant that Stuart Kettlewell’s side had conceded 11 goals in their previous five matches. Their last clean sheet had come in a 5-0 win over Ross County at Fir Park on 6 February. Surely, they were therefore ripe for some rapier-like thrusts from a rampant Rangers side, one that had logged 11 successive wins for the first time since the halcyon days of Walter Smith, Ally McCoist and Richard Gough in season 1992/93.
The fans were roaring from the stands of Ibrox Park as Motherwell got the ball rolling. This would be another Saturday when the synergy between those stands and the players would be at the forefront. It was another occasion that everything was demanded from everyone.
Rangers set up as expected. Raskin and Lundstram sat in front of Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar and Ridvan, with the dynamic Diomande assuming the number 10 role. He was flanked by the increasingly dextrous Sterling on the right and young McCausland on the left.
Dessers took a dunt inside the opening five minutes. It was a clear foul, but Alan Muir thought otherwise. In a week when officials and VAR have again hogged the headlines, one had to hope that we would be reflecting on the feast of football after this one rather the mediocrity of the man clad in black.
After seven minutes, Tavernier slid a lovely ball into the inside right channel. Lundstram surged on to it, and his cross was stabbed away for a corner. It came to nothing, and moments later, Rangers were behind.
It was another soft goal to concede too. John Souttar, who was very impressive and commanding against Kilmarnock, was caught out, and when the ball was played to Theo Bair, he knocked the ball out of the reach of Butland. For the second time in a week, the league leaders were being asked questions. Could they come from behind again?
Rangers responded, and Raskin’s dipping shot from range was pouched by Liam Kelly. But it was a scratchy and uneven performance from the home side. They needed some inspiration, and a bustling run from Lundstram gave some hope when Rangers won a corner. But once again nothing came of it.
The task was now to unpick a Motherwell side that had closed ranks and retreated. For that to happen, the pace needed to quicken, and when it did after 18 minutes, Dessers should have restored parity. Ridvan’s excellent cross picked him out in the heart of the penalty area, but with time and space aplenty, he elected to head for goal first time. His header fell wide of target. With hindsight, he should have taken the ball down and then gone for goal.
Diomande, who has shown he enjoys shooting from range, did so again, stinging the palms of the diving Kelly. Ridvan then did something similar after 22 minutes as Rangers started to turn the screw. You felt that as much as the opening quarter of the match had been rather insipid that a goal was coming for the home side. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
A glance at the statistics showed that this was a very un-Clement-like performance from Rangers. Possession had been lost 40 times in the opening 25 minutes, and passing accuracy was sitting at 78%. And from 11 attempted crosses, only three had found their intended target.
After 27 minutes, McCausland and Dessers were denied by some desperate defending. The players were shaking off their lethargy, and the synergy was still alive and well as the crowd kept the faith that a goal was on its way. But the virtue of patience still some way from paying t to pay off.
Ross McCausland’s afternoon ended early when he was caught by a nasty-looking challenge. He was replaced by Fabio Silva, but before the change could be made, Butland had to get down a deal with a shot from Spittal. The opening came about due to some more worrying indecision in the Rangers ranks. Rangers more ropey than rampant at this point in proceedings. It became a common theme as the match progressed.
Silva passed up a great opportunity to level things when his tame shot from a long pass from Goldson was easily grasped by Kelly. Despite this and a few rumbles of discontent, the supporters were still exercising patience. They were certain that all would be well in the end.
Rangers were being restricted to shots from distance – Ridvan was the latest to try his luck – and the first half looked to be petering out.
As the clock ticked on to the 45-minute mark, Tavernier ghosted into the area to meet a cross from Dessers, but he was denied goal number 126 by some further desperate defending. Frustratingly, the corners that followed once again did not create an opportunity to test Kelly. The home side had had 10 by this point. More variety was required.
The half ended with Rangers trailing to that early Bair goal. The only thing poorer than Rangers first half display was the performance of referee, Muir. He had had a stinker, and the home fans weren’t slow to let him know that when he left the field.
But we didn’t want to be talking about match officials. We wanted to be purring about another performance that befitted champions. We weren’t, and we were looking to the manager again to work his magic in the dressing room to coax a second half performance akin to that seen at Rugby Park. That was essential if we were to avoid handing our title rivals an unexpected boost ahead of their trip to Tynecastle tomorrow.
Midweek saw two changes at the start of the second half. On this occasion, it was one. Matchwinner Tom Lawrence was introduced, with Nico Raskin making way. To be fair, the little Belgian hadn’t had much impact on proceedings, and Lawrence would offer more guile too.
Lennon Miller spooned the first opening of the second 45 over the bar before Sterling’s thudded shot was blocked for a corner. From the stramash that followed, the ball was poked into the net, but the roars were stilled by the sight of the assistant referee’s flag. Not for the first time in the game, Dessers had strayed offside.
Rangers got a fright after 53 minutes. Butland was uncharacteristically sloppy with a clearance, and when the ball was crossed in, Spittal shot against the crossbar. It was a let-off similar to the one we had seen against Kilmarnock when they had spurned a chance to double their lead at a similar point in the match.
And Motherwell were made to rue that miss too. After much deliberation, Alan Muir was called to the VAR screen after a foul on Silva. He consulted and decided it was indeed a penalty to Rangers. James Tavernier stepped up and did what he does more often than not from the spot. That’s 126 goals now from the skipper, and number 68 from 12 yards. Exceptional.
That provoked a reaction from the fans. They raised the roof. There was that synergy again.
Rangers had their tails up. Lundstram strode forward and laid the ball into the path of Sterling. He skewed his effort wide of the far post, but the traffic was now flowing in one direction, towards the Copland Stand.
On 67 minutes, Tavernier’s deep delivery wreaked havoc in the Motherwell defence. Silva rose and knocked a header back across goal, and it was scrambled away for a corner. From the skipper’s delivery, Souttar headed high over the bar. Moments later, some lovely interplay in and around the box ended when a beautiful ball across goal from Tavernier found no takers. It was the kind of delivery that a striker should have been capitalising on.
Suddenly the direction of traffic changed, and it took a despairing lunge from Souttar to thwart Bair. But after the corner was cleared, a ball to the back post was headed into the net by Dan Casey. It was another sloppy goal to concede, and a Herculean effort was now required to rescue Rangers.
Clement responded by replacing Dessers with Kemar Roofe. With the VAR intervention, you suspected there would be a fair amount of additional time added on, but the goal seemed to suck the energy out of Rangers. They were struggling to keep hold of the ball for a sustained period of time.
With three minutes to go, Lawrence shot for goal, and it spiralled wide for a corner. It came to nothing, but in the action that followed, Lundstram and Ridvan drew fine reflex saves from Kelly. Souttar then sent a free header wide. It was gilt-edged.
Clement then threw the dice for the last time. As the fourth official indicated eight additional minutes, Scott Wright came on for Sterling. Souttar then sent another free header wide when it was laid on a plate for him by Tavernier. It was starting to look like one of those days.
But then came the opportunity. Lawrence was fouled on the edge of the D. Tavernier territory. Could history repeat itself inside four days? The answer was ‘no’, the captain firing wide of the right-hand post.
After losing at home to Motherwell in a league match for the first time in almost 30 years, Rangers are left to reflect on a costly day in the title race. It’s not over by any stretch of the imagination, but this was a golden opportunity to keep the momentum going. It all felt rather flat when Muir’s whistle brought proceedings to an end.
Clement has lost his unblemished Ibrox record in the league. It was hard to give any of the players pass marks, with both centre backs being particularly poor. The lack of natural width was also an issue.
It has to be hoped that this is just a bump in the road. Time will tell.
