RANGERS were held to a 1-1 draw by Motherwell at Ibrox this afternoon as Kaiyne Woolery cancelled out a Fashion Jr opener.
The Light Blues were so strong in the first half and deserved their lead given to them by the Zambian, but missed opportunities were to cost the home side as Woolery pounced for a share of the spoils.
Boss Steven Gerrard named four changes to his side - from the team which faced Lyon on Thursday night, in came Jack Simpson, Kemar Roofe, Scott Wright and Fashion Jr, taking the place of Leon Balogun, Ryan Kent, John Lundstram and Alfredo Morelos.
That meant, in a very attacking Gers XI, it was a back five of Allan McGregor in goal with James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Simpson and Borna Barisic in front of him.
Joe Aribo, Steven Davis and Glen Kamara were in midfield while up front, Roofe and Wright played in support of Fashion Jr.
The opening stages were pretty even both in terms of play and possession, with Scott Wright having a bit of an opening on the end of an excellent Goldson ball, but it was the visitors who had the first big chance with 11 minutes showing on the clock.
A long ball forward was met by Tony Watt, and after McGregor initially did well to push the striker wide when one-on-one, Goldson steamed in with a super recovery tackle to clear the danger.
From that, Gers steamed forward and Fashion Jr brought a fine save out of Liam Kelly from the edge of the area – but the Zambian wasn’t to be denied his first official goal for the club, as he netted from the resulting corner.
Tavernier’s ball in was superb to the front post for Aribo to nod-on, and alive to the ball as it dropped just a few yards from goal was Fashion Jr to glance it over Kelly and into the roof of the net.
The little striker certainly enjoyed the moment with the supporters in the Broomloan Front as once again, the Light Blues displayed their prowess from the set-piece.
Davis had a deflected effort from distance well-held by Kelly as the home side threatened again, while the goalkeeper escaped as a Fashion Jr strike went right underneath his body only for Stephen O’Donnell to rescue him before Tavernier could tap home.
As the rain intensified, Kelly did well to hold onto a decent Roofe effort from the edge of the box, but Gers really were asserting their dominance on the game and using the conditions to their advantage to zip the ball around at a terrific pace.
Tavernier brought another save out of Kelly, while Wright poked one just past on the turn, doing well to hold of a plethora of Well defenders just inside the area.
Davis curled another strike from distance just over as the score remained 1-0 to the Light Blues at the break.
The second half began as the first ended, and Roofe might have looked to do better on the end of an Aribo cut-back, while Aribo himself curled one well wide.
Kelly held onto a Wright shot from inside the ‘D’, and Fashion Jr had another strike from a super Aribo ball which went wide from a difficult angle.
Kelly then tipped over a speculative Tavernier effort from far out on the left, but out of nothing, Motherwell drew level on 66 minutes.
It was loose at the back from the home side, and Mark O’Hara’s ball reached Kaiyne Woolery to nip in and equalise for the visitors completely against the run of play.
Boss Gerrard responded by introducing Juninho Bacuna and Alfredo Morelos, and the former had a decent effort go just wide from 20-yards within minutes of his introduction.
Fellow sub Scott Arfield headed wide on the end of a Barisic cross into the area, while Aribo had an effort come off Alfredo Morelos deep in stoppage time as Gers hunted that eventually elusive winner.
RANGERS: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Simpson, Barisic, Aribo, Kamara, Davis (Arfield, 81) Roofe, Fashion Jr (Bacuna, 76), Wright (Morelos, 76).
SUBS NOT USED: McLaughlin, Lundstram, Balogun, Bassey.
MOTHERWELL: Kelly, Grimshaw, McGinley, O’Donnell, Ojala (Lamie, 76), O’Hara, Mugabi, Slattery, Woolery, Van Veen (Donnelly, 92), Watt (Roberts, 84)
SUBS NOT USED: Fox, Amaluzor, Crawford, Maguire.
REFEREE: Steven McLean
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