Dick Advocaat looked on from the main stand and realised he was watching the same movie as Rangers squandered chances and had to come from behind when Motherwell scored with virtually their first attack.
However, having retrieved the situation with goals from Shota Arveladze and Ronald de Boer Rangers failed to close the game out and then Willie Young judged that Fernando Ricksen handled the ball in the box when it clearly hit him on the chest and shoulder. He awarded a penalty and David Kelly scored with it.
McLeish should have guessed that his first match in charge would put him through the ringer in terms of emotions and only 15 minutes had been played when he lost his first goal as Rangers boss.
In fairness it was a marvelous strike from Keith Lasley which gave Motherwell the lead but that is of little consolation to McLeish, who was obviously hoping for a better start.
Stuart Elliott cleverly held the ball up just inside the Rangers box waiting for the right option and he certainly chose it, laying the ball back perfectly for Lasley who screamed a 20 yard shot into the top left corner with the outside of his right boot.
In saying that it was a bad goal to lose from Rangers’ point of view as Lasley should have been covered. Worse than that, Rangers had had three decent chances before this point but, as has been their main feeling this season, they did not take them.
Barely 60 second had elapsed when Neil McCann picked out Ronald de Boer in the box but the Dutchman stabbed a right foot shot wide. Then in three minutes de Boer cut the ball back for Russell Latapy but his shot was deflected of Well skipper Scott Leitch for a corner.
It was an excellent start and Motherwll were caught again in eight minutes but Rangers – again – failed to capitalise and let them off the hook.
Shota Arveladze played an excellent one-two with de Boer but slipped when he took the return pass with the whole goal in his sights.
These misses proved costly and Rangers were very fortunate not to go two behind in 19 minutes. Elliott was allowed to drive over a cross from the left and David Kelly hit it first from point blank range.
Fortunately for Rangers he hit the ball straight at Stefan Klos and it smacked off the German keeper’s chest, to the undoubted relief of the Rangers bench.
Perhaps buoyed by this good fortune, Rangers regained a grip of the game imposing their passing style on Motherwell and Arveladze was unlucky not to equalise in 34 minutes.
McCann sent him motoring down the left and he hammered a left foot shot which Mark Brown brilliantly pushed onto the post and wide for as corner.
Shota, however, was not to be denied and he fired Rangers back into the game three minutes with a typical striker’s goal. There was an element of fortune about it too, but McLeish was not complaining.
Fernando Ricksen produced a decent cross from the right and McCann really should have converted it but miskicked. The ball broke to Arveladze and swept it into the net from five yards.
McLeish had set his side up in a 4-3-1-2 formation with Latapy playing in the free role behind the front two, but he switched things at half-time bringing Stephen Hughes on for the Caribbean star and moving Bert Konterman back to produce a 3-4-3 line-up.
It certainly worked as Rangers maintained a powerful grip of the game and went ahead 18 minutes into the second half.
Neil McCann whipped over a corner from the right side and it completely fooled Brown as de Boer and Moore both went for it and ended up in the back of the net to the delight of the Rangers fans behind the ex-Ibrox keeper’s goal.
McCann should have put the game beyond doubt when de Boer set him free with a fantastic 40-yard pass from inside his own half. McCann was through on Brown but shot straight at the keeper.
Six minutes later and McLeish’s worst fears were realised when Motherwell won the dubious penalty which earned them a draw. Substitute Martyn Corrigan’s cross into the box was deflected into the back post area where it hit Ricksen on the shoulder but Willie Young immediately pointed to the spot.
To prolong the agony, Klos managed to get a hand on David Kelly’s spotkick but he could not stop the ball from going into the left corner. Technically, Ricksen should have been sent off as he had been booked earlier but Young let it go.
There was a red card to come, however, just to put the tin lid on a miserable evening. Craig Moore was late with a challenge on Lasley in injury time and collected a second yellow card. Having been booked for kicking the ball away in the first he had to go.
It means he missed next Saturday’s visit of Dundee United, although Lorenzo Amoruso will be backfor that one.
Rangers might have won it with Bert Konterman trying his luck from distance but the big Dutchman had no luck. His right foot shot in 81 minutes smacked off the base of the left hand post then Brown made a great save from Konterman’s deflected effort two minutes from the end of the 90.
In fairness, Motherwell might have snatched victory too but for Klos who made a brilliant save on Lasley’s drive in 87 minutes.
If Alex McLeish did not realise the magnitude of his task before he took the job, he certainly knows it now.
MOTHERWELL: Brown; Ready, Deloumeaux, Strong; Soloy (Corrigan 67), Lasley (Pearson 90), Leitch, McFadden, Hammell; Kelly, Elliott. Subs not used – Woods, Dow, Adams.
Bookings: McFadden (65), Corrigan (87), Leitch (89)
RANGERS: Klos; Ricksen, Moore, Vidmar, Numan; Konterman, Ferguson, McCann; Latapy (Hughes 45); de Boer, Arveladze (Caniggia 86), McCann. Subs not used – Christiansen, Dodds, Ross.
Sen off: Moore (90)
Bookings: Ricksen (71)
Ref: Willie Young.
Att: 9,894.
Man of the match: Stefan Klos.
Moment of the match: De Boer’s 40 yard pass to set up McCann.