WE DIDN’T PLAY ’WELL ENOUGH

STEVEN GERRARD admitted he had to deliver a half-time rocket to fire up his sloppy Rangers players and maintain their unbeaten league run against bottom side Motherwell.

But the Steelmen were gutted at being denied a first top flight over Gers at Fir Park in almost two decades as Cedric Itten’s leveller after Devante Cole’s opener (inset) should have been ruled out for offside.

Gerrard (above) revealed how

Motherwell chiefs warned him that the Fir Park pitch was in a poor state before the game but he refused to use that as an excuse.

He said: “I had to get into the players at half-time. If you look at our first half performance, we were too passive in key areas of the pitch.

“I was going to make a change at half-time but I thought I’d give people a little bit more time. We have ourselves to blame for the outcome because we never came to this game until half-time. We had to get into them and demand more from them in and out of possession. We got a reaction from them. We were really good in the second half and we were unlucky not to get another goal or two.

“As a group we all know where we are at and where we are trying to get to. Last week the players were outstanding for 60 minutes but we left the game too early. Today it was a little bit the opposite.

“We had an email off Motherwell to be fair a few days ago talking about the standard of the pitch but we knew that at this stage of the season you’re not going to get perfect pitches. Ibrox isn’t perfect at the moment.”

New Motherwell boss Graham Alexander was delighted with his players but for the second game in a row of his Fir Park tenure he was left cursing the officials after a dodgy penalty award for St Mirren cost him victory.

He said: “It’s frustrating because you can only control your game and your positions so if someone is offside then you’re controlling it by holding a good line.

“It was only after the game when someone showed me the still and a bit of footage and that hurts us a little bit.”