RANGERS 1 MOTHERWELL 1
Reality bit for Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha – but not without 45 minutes of fantasy football first.
The Ibrox side ended the day 10 points and 27 goals adrift of rampant Aberdeen in the race for second spot after their fifth home draw in 15 games.
Louis Moult’s third-minute goal – the striker’s 15th of the season – was scant reward for Motherwell ’s three-up-front first-half assault.
However, it was a radical three-sub half- time overhaul forced on the Portuguese boss that transformed the second period into one of the most entertaining of the season.
Subbing three of the back four at the break because of illness and injury, it left one defender on the park and blew the game wide open.
The only surprise was Joe Garner’s 61st-minute equaliser was the only other goal after an incredible display from keeper Wes Foderingham.
It was Caixinha’s second game in charge but he admitted: “No Rangers manager or player can be happy if we draw, at Ibrox or anywhere else.
“But we had a different game in the first half and the second.
“Motherwell were stronger and we weren’t mentally or emotionally in the game. So we tried to change those things at half time.
“Lee Wallace wasn’t 100 per cent, Lee Hodson had a high fever and Clint Hill also felt his hamstring.
“So we were forced not only to change the mindset but change everything else. I have to praise my players for the way they all played out of position.
“They did a fantastic job and we could, with a little luck, have had a different result.”
Caixinha had been delighted that the international break afforded him the chance to bed his players into his philosophy and get the work done on the training ground.
But if defending set-pieces was one of the modules, then there’s still work to be done.
Chris Cadden’s corner was a belter, a vicious inswinger from the left, helped by a gusting wind.
Hi l l was all over the place defending it and Moult took full advantage, his downward header bouncing up into the roof of the net.
Well were pressuring Rangers hard in a brave 3-4-3 set-up, forcing a litany of misplaced passes and bad decisions from an out- of- sorts looking home side.
Even when they did break clear of the smothering oppression, their decision making was all wrong.
Not least Martyn Waghorn’s. He got the first bit right, slipping Well’s line to meet a lovely throughball from Jon Toral.
But his attempt to con a penalty from ref Steven McLean, throwing himself to the deck before keeper Craig Samson was even in the same postcode, was embarrassing and rightly rewarded with a yellow.
The same colour was dished out on the half hour to Stephen Pearson – and he was lucky that’s all it was after a really poor tackle on Toral.
His instant contrition suggested he knew it would be touch and go – and the boos rang out from the Ibrox stands when no red was shown.
It was a rare moment of il ldiscipline from the Fir Park side, though. They made Rangers look bang average, denying the big switches in play that was so evident in their whipping of Hamilton two weeks ago.
That frustration turned to confusion at the break. When only eight of the home side reappeared for the second half eyebrows were raised.
When supporters realised the two midfielders and a striker on the halfway line were waiting to come on for three of the back four, you could almost see 45,000 cartoon question marks above heads around the ground.
Off came Wallace, Hill and Hodson, replaced by Andy Halliday on the left of a three, Michael O’Halloran at right wing back, with Toral dropping in at centre back and Garner up top.
It was nothing if not radical but as shock tactics go, it was like hooking their privates up to a generator.
Rarely has a game’s tempo skyrocketed the way this did. It was sensational, in both directions.
Rangers were instantly more dangerous and the only surprise was it took them until the hour mark to get level. When they did, it was a thing of beauty – a dreamy, inviting Kenny Miller delivery from deep vol leyed home on the stretch at the back post by Garner.
But anyone who thought that would be the sign for Well to capitulate was a mile out.
Instead they cottoned on quickly to the fact that attack was the best form of defence against a side with only one recognised defender.
Within two minutes Moult had the ball in the net, only for it to be chopped off for the slightest of touches off an offside Pearson on the way through.
The assistant missed it but ref McLean was spot on to call it.
Foderingham pulled off a superb save from a Ryan Bowman header, clawing it off the line down low.
Then the keeper was hero again with an astonishing double save.
Cadden’s corner caused havoc and the No.1 blocked a shot from Moult then a rebound from Scott McDonald to keep the game deadlocked.
Meanwhile up the other end, Emerson Hyndman and Garner forced class saves from Samson.
Even in injury time, Hyndman blew a dream chance over the bar and Foderingham was forced to turn one last ef for t f rom McDonald round his post.
How neither side scored a winner is anyone’s guess.
Barrie McKay said: “I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a situation where we made three changes at the break.
“We didn’t really know what formation we were playing – we’d two central midfielders playing centre-half so it was obviously a change. But I thought we did enough to get the win.”