Rangers lose fall-back crutch?

No matter what way you spin it, one point from nine is one of the worst runs in the history of Rangers in the SPL.

Alex McLeish went even worse back in the day, so it has not quite plunged to those depths, but for a team looking to build something, a draw and two losses is nowhere land.

It’s hard to crucify that first half at Fir Park enough – players coming back from a two week break with only a handful of them away with their countries sauntered onto the Motherwell pitch and let the home side completely outclass them in every area of the pitch.

2-0 was a very accurate reflection of the gulf, and it could have been more. The second half was undeniably better from the visiting team but it took a mistakenly-awarded penalty to give the visitors a foothold before the best Rangers player Jamie Murphy slotted home a wonderful goal to take a share of the spoils.

This was a result which helped no one, and did Graeme Murty’s case to be manager about as much good as the Killie loss.

That he failed to make a single change at half time was absolutely incomprehensible, as was his decision to select Graham Dorrans out of position next to Greg Docherty, whose own game suffered dramatically with a player alongside him who can’t do the defensive stuff.

But Rangers’ players did roll their sleeves up and at least put in more effort in the second half – but at no point did they look like scoring and impotence was the name of the game.

Alfredo Morelos continues to struggle – for all the praise punters give his support work deeper behind the penalty box, his game as a striker has been absolutely horrendous for quite a while now, and that late shot really summed up the Jekyll and Hyde player he is – a team player when deeper, but all about Alfredo Morelos in the box.

But it wasn’t like Rangers deserved the win – Motherwell did, and will be kicking themselves Main’s astonishing strike clipped the bar late on along with the earlier brush with the woodwork.

We knew this would be a tough one, and Motherwell showed why they’re creeping back up the table. The fact Rangers struggle against teams we used to be beat handsomely really sums up where this regime is, where it’s going, and just how far there is to travel before there’s anything like the consistency in winning that old Rangers fans are used to.

Furthermore, that priceless away record, Rangers’ saving grace this season, was completely AWOL.

If there’s not that to rely on, there’s nothing.