Philippe Clement makes Rangers setback admission as he fumes over tackle on Ross McCausland

What the Rangers manager said after the 2-1 defeat to Motherwell at Ibrox

Motherwell's Dan Casey tackles Rangers' Ross McCausland, who was unable to continue. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

Rangers manager Philippe Clement admitted he expected his first major setback to happen sooner after Motherwell claimed a shock 2-1 win at Ibrox to end his unbeaten home record and hand the title initiative back to Celtic.

The Belgian had anticipated that his side would hit a wall at some point after embarking on a hugely impressive run since his appointment in October to make up a seven-point deficit and overhaul Celtic at the top of the table.

The Hoops now have the chance to reclaim top spot with a win at Hearts on Sunday after goals from Theo Bair and Dan Casey, either side of James Tavernier's penalty equaliser, saw the Steelmen claim a famous victory.

Clement will now look for a reaction from his players as they head to Lisbon for Thursday's Europa League last 16 first leg tie against Benfica.

"I didn't expect to have that moment after five months in the building. I thought it would be much earlier," Clement admitted. "Now I will get to know my team even better. I know them really well already, but now I will see who is going to be the guys to stand up after a disappointment. Honestly, I don't doubt it too much. They are very disappointed now. I saw a lot of heads down in the dressing room, but it is necessary also. I am also very disappointed we didn't get the three points. But that's part of football and you need to cope with that and take the right lessons out of that. Then learn to become better and that is our ambition."

Clement suffered another injury blow in the first half as Ross McCausland limped off after a robust challenge from Dan Casey, who appeared to win the ball before catching the youngster. No foul was given against the Motherwell defender by referee Alan Muir with no VAR review requested, much to the chagrin of the Rangers boss.

"Ross is bad of course, he is kicked off the pitch," he said. "Just kicked off the pitch. There was no foul. No yellow card. No red card. If I see the last couple of months the way we get red cards, and I see this action... I don't understand to be honest. There's too much intensity. It's the first half and you need to take a player off because he cannot walk anymore after a contact then you need to realise something really bad happened there. But clearly not."