By Robert McElroy
Motherwell 2 (Stamatelopoulos 1, Maswanhise 35) Rangers 2 (Igamane 2 [50, 68])
Attendance 8,728
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There was little Festive cheer for Rangers at Fir Park this afternoon as two more points were squandered in a 2-2 draw with Motherwell – although the Ibrox men did fight back from a two-goal interval deficit in a game played in extremely difficult overhead conditions with a ferocious, biting wind at times causing havoc to both sides.
Philippe Clement made sweeping changes following the Paisley reversal – no fewer than seven in total – with only Jack Butland, James Tavernier, Dujan Sterling and Mohamed Diomande retaining their places.
Rangers – wearing white tops, shorts and white socks – pressed for an early opener, attacking down both flanks, with, from a Ridvan Yilmaz cross in the sixth minute, Cyriel Dessers stretched to stab the ball goal-wards, only for home ‘keeper Aston Oxborough to block his effort.
The opening goal when it arrived however came at the other end ten minutes later when from a Tawanda Maswanhise through ball hesitation on the part of both Robin Propper and Butland – possibly wind-related – allowed Apostolos Stamatelopoulos to prod the ball under the advancing ‘Gers ‘keeper.
It was a bad goal to concede – and the worst-possible start for an Ibrox side looking to recover from the disappointment of Boxing Day.
Rangers did attempt to respond – four minutes later from another Yilmaz cross Danilo’s header was weak and well wide of the target, then on 26 minutes an Oscar Cortes volley from a Danilo chip was just over.
Motherwell were cleverly exposing the woeful defending of the visitors – underlined in the 35th minute when from Lennon Miller’s header Tawanda Maswanhise found who found the net with a clever turn and shot.
Rangers were right up against it now – and at the half-time whistle a crescendo of jeering poured forward from the travelling support following what had been a truly appalling display in admittedly dreadful conditions. As so often however the second-half would be a different story.
Philippe Clement clearly recognised that changes were essential if anything was to be retrieved from the game – making a double substitution at the interval with Vaclav Cerny and Hamza Igamane coming on for Kieran Dowell and Dessers.
Igamane almost made an immediate impact when his shot from the edge of the area flashed inches wide from a Tavernier lay-off.
Igamane would not be denied however – reducing the deficit five minutes after the restart when he blasted the ball home after Danilo had struck an upright from a Cerny cross.
Rangers were driving forward now in search of an equaliser – five minutes later Cerny, playing a one-two with Danilo, saw his left-foot shot from the edge of the area turned wide by Oxborough.
Just before the hour, ‘Well had the ball in the net again when Butland appeared to punch the ball into his own net following a corner – but the goal was chalked off both by Referee Kevin Clancy and the VAR Review as substitute Tony Watt had clearly impeded the ‘keeper.
VAR interceded again in the 65th minute when Watt netted after a Dan Casey shot had come off an upright – on this occasion it was offside.
Three minutes later the scores were level when from a Yilmaz opening Igamane cleverly curled the ball home.
The Motherwell goal was now under siege – but Rangers were unable to complete their fight-back with a winning goal and at the final whistle the points were shared in a 2-2 draw.
Motherwell: Oxborough; Kaleta (Ebiye 81), Casey, Gordon, Blaney, Wilson; Miller (Sparrow 67), Paton (Zdravkovski 75), Halliday (Nicholson 75); Stamatelopoulos (Watt 46), Maswanhise
Unused Subs: Hegyi, O’Donnell, Balmer, McGinn
Rangers: Butland; Tavernier, Sterling, Propper, Yilmaz; Cortes (Matondo 66), Diomande (Bajrami 89), Raskin, Dowell (Cerny 46), Danilo; Dessers (Igamane 46)
Unused Subs: Kelly, Barron, Jefte, King, McCausland
Referee: Kevin Clancy