Motherwell Vs 1Rangers 1

Rangers were looking for a better away performance after the last away SPL outing against Hearts where they lost 4-2. They came up against Mark McGhee's Motherwell who were on a high after beating Hibernian 4-2 in the CIS Insurance League Cup in midweek.

Walter Smith fielded a side of fringe players against East Fife in the midweek CIS Insurance League Cup game, and only three of that team remained in the starting line-up from that game, noteably Carlos Cuellar, Steven Whittaker and Kris Boyd.

Allan McGregor was back in goals after Smith had given Roy Carroll his debut. Alan Hutton was back at right-back with Whittaker going back into midfield. David Weir, Sasa Papac, Kevin Thomson, Barry Ferguson, Lee McCulloch, Stevie Naismith were the other starters.

After a scrappy opening 20 minutes or so of the game, Chris Porter gave the home side the lead. Porter latched onto a superb ball from David Clarkson and slid the ball under Allan McGregor to give the Lanarkshire side the lead. Rangers almost got the equaliser straight away after Lee McCulloch shot from the edge of the box, but the ball deflected off ex Ranger Stephen Hughes and onto the bar.

Motherwell then threatened to go further ahead when another ex Rangers Ross McCormack fired a free-kick off the Rangers crossbar. The game was now an entertaining one with chances coming for both sides. Clarkson came close for Motherwell before Carlos Cuellar looked like he had got an equaliser but his header was headed onto the bar from Stephen Hughes (again).

Rangers decided to bring on Jean-Claude Darcheville for Steven Whittaker, but the big striker didn't last long before he himself had to be substituted due to injury. His replacement was DeMarcus Beasley. It was the American that had a big hand in Rangers' equaliser, the winger got past the Motherwell defence and into the box, but his shirt was being pulled and he went down in the box. The referee had no option but to point to the spot. Beasley did go down easily but his shirt was being pulled and it was the correct decision.

Kris Boyd stepped up to take the penalty and he had no problem converting it past Graeme Smith in the Motherwell goal. Rangers were now going all out to turn this game round and get all three points. Despite Rangers giving it everything they had, they just couldn't carve out an opening and the game ended all square.

Rangers were still top of the league by three points, but with Celtic still to take on Dundee United and with a superior goal difference, it looked likely that Rangers would be slipping down to second place on goal difference, and that was to be the case after Celtic beat Dundee United by three goals to nil thanks to a Scott McDonald hat-trick.