First-half goals from the Steelmen’s Luke Armstrong and Thomas Sparrow – on nine and 30 minutes – left the Light Blues with a mountain to climb and although Cyriel Dessers pulled one back nine minutes into the second half, it was to be a frustrating afternoon which started with so much hope following Wednesday night’s dramatic 4-2 victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
Prior to kick-off and with the club celebrating Armed Forces Day, captain James Tavernier received a gift from Greatest Ever Ranger John Greig to mark his 500th appearance for the club before Ferguson walked onto the pitch to a standing ovation from the Ibrox faithful.
As both teams emerged from the tunnel with representatives from each branch of the armed services prior to kick-off, personnel from the Royal Marines abseiled into the stadium from the Broomloan Stand, Copland Stand and the Sandy Jardine Stand, with one handing over the match ball to referee Nick Walsh.
With Ferguson roaring his team forward from the technical area, a good passage of play from defence to attack after four minutes resulted in Vaclav Cerny’s deflected shot going out for a corner but the home support was stunned into silence five minutes later when Armstrong opened the scoring.
After Jack Butland had comfortably collected a corner-kick he rolled it out to Dessers but a heavy first touch allowed a Motherwell player to win a tackle. Dan Casey took possession and when his low shot was parried by Butland, Armstrong was quickest to react, sliding in to finish from close range.
In the build-up to the goal the Main Stand linesman raised his flag, believing Casey was in an offside position, but VAR confirmed that the player was in line with a Gers player and the Steelmen had their noses in front.
On 22 minutes Michael Wimmer’s men had a chance to double their advantage after Sparrow controlled the ball neatly on his chest in front of the Gers dugout and he fed the ball to Calum Slattery on the right flank.
The Motherwell number 8 played a clever return pass to his teammate who had ghosted in behind a defender but he could only find the side netting at Butland’s near post from a tight angle.
Before the half-hour mark it was 2-0 with the same two Motherwell players combining to great effect. Slattery was afforded acres of space midway inside Rangers’ half and he picked out Sparrow who had time to look up before firing the ball low across Butland and into the bottom corner of the net.
Before half-time Mohamed Diomande tried to lift his side, cutting inside his marker before unleashing a powerful shot which was tipped over by Ellery Balcolmbe at full stretch. In the next attack good combination play from Dessers and Hamza Igamane resulted in the latter curling an effort from 20 yards which was straight at Motherwell’s goalkeeper.
Ferguson made three changes to his team at the break, with Leon Balogun, Tom Lawrence and Nedim Bajrami replacing Robin Propper - who took a head knock in the first half - Ian Hagi and Igamane, with Rangers in desperate need of a spark to get them back into the game.
And on 54 minutes they had pulled a goal back. Tavernier played a pass out wide to Yilmaz who clipped the ball first time beyond two Motherwell players to Dessers who blasted the ball home confidently in front of the Union Bears.
With Motherwell appearing to tire and under increasing pressure, Wimmer decided to make three quick changes of his own, with the industrious Slattery, former Ger Andy Halliday and goalscorer Armstrong making way for Davor Zdravkovski, Harrison Paton and Moses Ebiye.
It wasn’t long before Tony Watt and Danilo were also introduced, taking the places of Lennon Miller and Diomande respectively.
On 78 minutes Dessers had the ball in the net again when he cleverly chipped Balcolmbe from Yilmaz’s assist but again it went to VAR and it was decided that Danilo was in an offside position as he touched the ball in the build-up.
The closest Rangers came to an equaliser was from Tavernier but he volleyed over the bar after the ball had fallen to him from a corner kick.
Motherwell celebrated victory at the final whistle but Rangers will rue another slow start in the first half when two poor goals conceded proved very costly.
RANGERS: Butland, Tavernier, Yilmaz (Sterling 83), Propper (Balogun 45), Dessers, Diomande (Danilo 73), Cerny, Jefte, Igamane (Lawrence 45), Hagi (Bajrami 45), Raskin
SUBS NOT USED: Kelly, Barron, Rice, Curtis
GOALS: Dessers 54
BOOKINGS: Jefte, Bajrami
MOTHERWELL: Balcolmbe, Gordon, Balmer, Sparrow, Slattery (Paton 62), Halliday (Zdravkovski 62), Casey, Miller (Watt 72), Andrews, Thompson (Wilson 89), Armstrong (Ebiye 62)
SUBS NOT USED: Ward, Koutroumbis, Maswanhise, Plange
GOALS: Armstrong 9, Sparrow 30
BOOKINGS: Halliday, Sparrow