Rangers find no way past gallant Motherwell

Motherwell 1 Rangers 1

Motherwell 1 Rangers 1

Rangers' performance against Motherwell today would have given Alex Ferguson plenty of notes to take but not a great deal to worry about.

The Manchester United manager was at Fir Park to take in the Bank of Scotland Premier League clash ahead of their trip to Ibrox for Wednesday night's Champions League meeting with Rangers.

Rangers headed into the game knowing that they had to get their league campaign back on track after losing their last game to Celtic, as well as boost their confidence ahead of the 'Battle of Britain' between the two champions.

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Shota Arveladze gave Rangers the lead but that was cancelled out by Stephen Pearson 11 minutes later and the Ibrox side failed to find the back of the net again.

Alex McLeish's men started well and Peter Lovenkrands almost set up the opener when he met a Shota Arveladze pass but the Well defence managed to clear the danger before Michael Mols could connect for the shot.

But Motherwell almost shocked the Ibrox side after 10 minutes. Pearson tried to pick out David Clarkson and the ball bounced off Henning Berg into the path of Steven Craig. He tried his luck with a shot at goal but chipped the ball across the face of goal and wide of the post.

Instead, it was Rangers who took the lead four minutes later when Zura Khizanishvili fed the ball through to fellow Georgian Arveladze and he flicked it over Gordon Marshall and into the back of the net from just outside the six-yard box.

Motherwell hauled themselves back to level terms after 25 minutes. Craig Moore tried to play the ball back up the park, instead of making the clearance, but was stopped by Keith Lasley who crossed into the area.

Berg tried to nod the ball back to goalkeeper Stefan Klos but Pearson intercepted and managed to round Klos before firing home the leveller.

Rangers started the second half clearly determined to reclaim their lead and they almost did just that less than a minute after the restart when Arteta squared the ball across the face of goal to Lovenkrands but his effort came off Martyn Corrigan for a corner.

The home side were threatening again when Lasley unleashed a volley that looked netbound until Klos produced an impressive save to prevent the effort finding the back of the net.

Rangers continued to push forward in search of another goal but the hosts defended vigilantly and Well almost took the lead on the break.

Clarkson went on a great run into the area before unleashing a shot and he was unlucky to see the effort come off the post with just five minutes remaining.

PA