Carson senses Rangers are vulnerable as Motherwell seek to break 22-year hoodoo

Ibrox has been anything but a fortress during the last 12 months. In that time Rangers have won only eight of their 19 Premiership fixtures there, losing seven of them.

Hamilton won there in the league for the first time since 1926, St Johnstone left with full points for the first time since 1971 while Aberdeen ended a 26-year drought. Celtic have enjoyed three wins there and Hibernian one.

Motherwell’s last league win in Govan was in 1995 (when Alex Mcleish was their manager) but goalkeeper Trevor Carson believes that Stephen Robinson’s current side can repeat their Betfred Cup semi-final success against the beleaguered Glasgow club tomorrow.

“They are quite a young side and maybe they saw Saturday’s game at Kilmarnock as an opportunity to get away from the pressure at Ibrox,” said the Irishman. “But losing at Rugby Park has just mounted the pressure a little bit more. We know that if we can go there and frustrate them early on we can maybe get the crowd to turn on them but it’s going to be a tough game.

“I’m sure they’ll see it as an opportunity to put things right but we definitely believe that we can go there and get a result. Obviously, it will be in our thoughts that Ibrox has been a difficult place for them recently – you look at every avenue for any advantage you can get.

“Playing in front of big crowds is great when you’re winning but if you’re not doing so well – especially when you have such a young team who are maybe not used to dealing with that sort of pressure – then it’s hard.

“But it’s up to us. It’s all right saying that but – if you go there and find yourself two or three down after 20 minutes – then it becomes a hard day. So we have to go with a game plan to frustrate them and there’s enough confidence among the group that we can kick on and get a positive result.

“If we’d lost against Dundee on Saturday that would have been five defeats on the bounce so drawing 1-1 just stems the bleeding a bit. Drawing against Dundee at home doesn’t sound great but it’s a massive point for us – a turning point – and we need to kick on now.”

The winter break cannot come quickly enough for Carson, who has been playing in spite of a shoulder injury.

“There’s strapping on it and I’m taking pills for the pain – maybe too many sometimes – but that’s part and parcel of the game sometimes, just manning up and getting on with it,” he said.

Wingers Chris Cadden and Elliott Frear, who suffered hamstring injuries against Dundee, are both unlikely to feature.