McKay reflects on crazy afternoon of football

Barrie McKay admitted he had no idea how his Rangers side were lining up by the end of their madcap draw with Motherwell.

Injury and illness wrecked manager Pedro Caixinha’s tactics for the visit of Stephen Robinson’s men.

With his side a goal down to Louis Moult’s third-minute opener, the new Gers boss was forced to use up all three of his substitutions at half-time.

Skipper Lee Wallace had struggled through the opening 45 minutes with a stomach injury picked up on Scotland duty, while centre-half Clint Hill was suffering from a hamstring pull and Lee Hodson a fever.

All three were removed at the break, with midfielder Jon Toral and substitute Andy Halliday forming a makeshift back three alongside Rob Kiernan. McKay and another of Caixinha’s replacements, Michael O’Halloran, were asked to take on unfamiliar wing-back roles.

Final substitute Joe Garner grabbed a 61st-minute equaliser to earn a 1-1 draw, but Gers were so wide open Well really should have capitalised.

Keeper Wes Foderingham had to bail out his team on three occasions and McKay admitted he had never sampled an afternoon like it.

He said: “I don’t think I’ve been involved in a situation where we made three changes at the break. As footballers you have to be ready for these things and you just need to get on with it.

“We didn’t really know what formation we were playing – we’d two central midfielders playing centre-half so it was obviously a change.

“First half we were a wee bit off the pace but second half I thought we did enough to get the win, we just couldn’t get that second goal.

“First half our passing wasn’t as crisp and their goal maybe set us back a little bit so early on. But we’re all disappointed we didn’t get the win.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Kris Doolan bagged a brace to make it 101 goals in Partick colours as they beat Ross County 2-1, while Inverness CT and Kilmarnock shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw.

Rangers striker Joe Garner celebrates his leveller against Well.