Motherwell 0-5 Rangers: Five star away team on top

Published on Friday 29 April 2011 15:54

Motherwell 0-5 Rangers Lafferty 18; Davis 51; Jelavic 64; Naismith 76, 90

AS STATEMENTS go, this could not have been more resounding, a Rangers evisceration of a Motherwell side that had been full of life for weeks.

The hosts had the misfortune to run into a team at their unforgiving best in a blistering second half, a side that administered a desperate spanking and reminded us all, lest we had forgotten, that there is still a way to go before the destination of the SPL title is known. Motherwell got blasted by an immensely powerful last half-hour sparked in the main by the Stevens - Naismith and Davis. The longer it went on, the more the pair of them ran the show, the more fearful Motherwell became of them. Naismith got two goals and he could have had three. Davis got one but was involved in the creation of another. Truth be told, Rangers had many opportunities to go beyond the five goals they actually scored.

With three matches to go, it's not a bad time of the season to be producing your most ruthless form. To think that in the preamble this was deemed a real test of Rangers' mettle, a day, potentially, when they could slip on a banana skin and allow Celtic a seismic advantage in the championship race. So much for all that.

They are four points clear at the top now, still slight underdogs to win the league with Celtic having a two-game advantage, but barking away in the hope of scaring their rivals, who play Dundee United this afternoon. Stuart McCall called the final 30 minutes "embarrassing" for his team. "These players are playing for contracts and playing for places in the Cup final but you wouldn't have thought it in the last half an hour. Celtic people will be watching them and wondering how come we can go and beat them 2-0 while losing 5-0 to Rangers. It's not acceptable."

Before that, and in the opening half in particular, they gave as good as they got, creating chances and forcing some key interventions from Allan McGregor. Even Smith was concerned with the way things were going early on. The Rangers manager said: "You certainly wouldn't have thought we would have scored the number of goals we did, because at that stage we just weren't playing well enough."

There was some understandable bitterness from the Motherwell manager also. He reckoned that Davie Weir fouled John Sutton in the build-up to the first Rangers goal and believed, with some justification, that Kyle Lafferty should have been sent-off before the break when having already been booked, the Northern Irishman ignored referee Mike Tumilty's whistle and blasted a shot on goal. Lafferty had made a much more positive contribution by then, though.His opening goal had a lot to do with a driving run from midfield from Davis and had a touch of good luck about it when Lafferty got a break of the ball that put him through. In fairness to the striker, he took it round Darren Randolph and put it away from an angle.

Motherwell were still punching their weight at that point, but the second goal was the killer from their perspective. A Gregg Wylde cross, a Naismith shot beaten away by Randolph and a cool follow-up from Davis did for Motherwell. The implosion was not long in coming. Nikica Jelavic hit a post, then had a goal ruled out for offside, but he would not be denied. A magnificent run down the left from Sasa Papac resulted in a fantastic cross from the full-back and a strong header at the back post from the Croatian. Three goals down, the chances of Motherwell repeating their minor miracle at Tynecastle last weekend were non-existent. The fourth went in soon after the third, Wylde involved again, but the glory belonged to Naismith who fairly thundered his shot past Randolph. Two minutes later, Naismith was through again, but hammered his effort wide. "I should have scored," he said. "It was the easiest chance I had all day."

Certainly, it was an easier chance than the one he converted. It was another gorgeous finish, a rasping shot that the midfielder puts down as one of the finest of his career. "It was nice, because I don't normally score good goals." At this time of year, they all have the look of beauty about them.

MOTHERWELL

Randolph

Ross

Craigan

Gunning

Hammell (56)

Jones

Lasley (77)

Jennings

Murphy

Jeffers (69)

Sutton

Subs used

Hutchinson (56)

McHugh (69)

Hateley (77)

MAN OF THE MATCH

Steven Naismith (Rangers)

Relentless in the second half and both his goals were absolute beauties.

TALKING POINT

Davie Weir's shirt and the message to the happy royal couple.

Referee: M Tumilty. Attendance: 8.968

RANGERS

McGregor

Whittaker

Bougherra

Weir

Papac

Naismith

Davis

Edu

Wylde (84)

Jelavic

Lafferty (73)

Subs used

Diouf (73)

Kerkar (84)