RANGERS produced a terrific, battling performance to win at Fir Park this afternoon, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men playing for more than an hour with 10 men but still managing to secure an important away result.
The Light Blues went 1-0 up thanks to an own goal from goalkeeper Liam Kelly after 14 minutes, but a red card shown to Leon Balogun turned the game on its head, with the Steelman then equalising with 10 minutes of the first half remaining when Ross Tierney headed home.
The visitors were up against it as they sprinted back out for the start of the second half, but a superb goal from Scott Wright two minutes in and a brilliantly taken penalty kick from James Tavernier – his 80th goal for the club - after the hour mark meant there was no way back from Graham Alexander’s players, who were understandably dejected and stunned as they walked back to the tunnel at full time.
Rangers started the match positively, retaining possession well and moving the ball quickly without being able to test the home side’s goalkeeper Kelly.
On 11 minutes, however, Fashion Sakala - after taking a knock to the face and getting treatment - made a great run from deep and he slid a pass to his strike partner Amad Diallo in the box. The 19-year-old beat Kelly but his low, net-bound effort was blocked by Jake Carroll.
Three minutes later and the Light Blues deservedly broke the deadlock after their early dominance. Tavernier’s deep cross to the back post was headed across goal by Connor Goldson and Kelly stretched to get a hand to it but the ball fell behind him and over the line for an own goal.
Motherwell looked to respond quickly after conceding and Allan McGregor had to be alert to palm a right-foot shot from Callum Slattery around his post, the Gers number one diving low to his right to make a good stop.
Most of the attacking play was coming from the visitors though and on 24 minutes Scott Arfield saw a left-foot shot blocked by Ricki Lamie. The ball rebounded out to Tavernier and his first-time volley flew across goal and inches wide of Kelly’s far post.
Before the half-hour mark the game took a twist when Balogun saw red for his challenge on Dean Cornelius in front of Fir Park’s main stand.
The Nigerian’s challenge was clumsy with Motherwell’s Juahni Ojala guilty of a similar tackle on Wright minutes later with referee Nick Walsh only brandishing a yellow card from his pocket.
Anyway, Graham Alexander’s men now had an advantage and with 10 minutes of the first half remaining they were on level terms, with Tierney heading in a cross from Carroll which gave McGregor no chance.
With Calvin Bassey replacing Diallo immediately after Balogun’s sending off, Rangers had to regroup at the half-time interval with neither side managing to score a second goal before the break.
The second half was going to take a huge effort from the Ibrox men who were now shooting towards the packed away end of the ground.
With no further substitutions for the restart, Rangers had to show all their battling qualities and two minutes into the second half the score was 2-1, with Wright scoring with a fantastic finish to put his team back in the driving seat.
Again it was an impressive, powerful run from the electric Sakala which had the Motherwell players panicking and he then elected to pass the ball to Wright who was 20 yards from goal. He took a touch across his body before powering a right-foot shot through a defender’s legs and into the opposite bottom corner.
The goal could not have come at a better time, with the Rangers fans going wild as the players in blue celebrated passionately in front of them.
After scoring a hat-trick in a 6-1 win at Fir Park at the end of October, Sakala was again proving to an important player in this fixture and on 61 minutes he won his side a penalty when he was brought down by Bevis Mugabi.
It was yet another brilliant run by the Zambian which led to the foul and when Tavernier placed the ball on the spot you knew there would only be outcome – the skipper sending Kelly the wrong way from 12 yards with great confidence.
There were to be no goals in the game, with perhaps the only disappointment being that Sakala didn’t take one of the couple of chances that came his way in the latter stages of the contest.
He certainly deserved to get on the scoresheet but once again this was a great team effort from a Rangers side that thoroughly deserved to claim all three Scottish Premiership points.
MOTHERWELL: Kelly, Carroll, Lamie, Mugabi (O’Hara 67), Ojala, Slattery, Cornelius, Efford (Amaluzor 72), Tierney, Goss (Woolery 67), Shields
SUBS NOT USED: Fox, Connelly, Shaw, Donnelly, Grimshaw, Nirennold
GOAL: Tierney 35
BOOKINGS: Ojala, Slattery, Mugabi
RANGERS: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Diallo (Bassey 31), Davis (King 86), Kamara (Sands 67), Wright (Itten 86), Balogun, Sakala, Barisic, Arfield (Aribo 67)
SUBS NOT USED: McLaughlin, Lundstram, Jack, Kent
GOALS: Kelly 14og, Wright 47, Tavernier 62pen
BOOKING: Arfield
RED CARD: Balogun 28
REF: Nick Walsh
ATT: 8,036
A subscription to RangersTV starts from just £6 per month, and provides not only exclusive access to the club’s teams, but also original feature videos and documentaries, our incredibly popular Inside Ibrox and Away Days shows and our extensive archive of match action from through the years.