Doug Ward

Sun 27 February 2022 16:53, UK

Rangers failed to capitalise upon Celtic’s failure to beat Hibernian earlier on Sunday as they were pegged back to a 2-2 draw by Motherwell at Ibrox.

Bevis Mugabe’s own goal and a stunning strike by Fashion Sakala gave the Light Blues a well-deserved 2-0 lead at half-time.

However, the Steelman fought their way back into the game after the break with Jordan Roberts and Kaiyne Woolery making the most of slack defending by the hosts.

Alfredo Morelos had two goals disallowed for being offside as the game ended 2-2 and here, Ibrox News rates the players out of 10 for their displays:

Allan McGregor – 4

McGregor didn’t have to do much at Ibrox on Sunday but when he was called into action, he didn’t exactly cover himself with glory. He should have stopped the ball getting anywhere near Roberts for his goal and was beaten way too easily at the near post for Mullery’s.

James Tavernier – 6

Tavernier’s crossing was sublime against the Steelmen, causing problems throughout the game with his ability both in open play and at set-pieces. We haven’t seen much of that this season but his goalscoring masterclass against Borussia Dortmund may have blown some wind in the captain’s sails. Well, going forward anyway. He’s still no good defensively.

Connor Goldson – 3

What was he doing for Roberts’ goal? It was such a simple ball into the box to defend but Goldson ended up going towards the ball rather than following Roberts, who was left with an open goal to score into. And then for Mullery’s goal, he got totally wrong-footed and might as well have not been there. We should’ve just paid whatever Hearts wanted for John Souttar in January.

John Lundstram – 7

Lundstram was played at centre-back alongside Goldson and looked really comfortable despite mainly being used as a midfielder. It’ll be interesting to see if van Bronckhorst does this more often against teams like Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership because he was sturdy at the back and a threat going forward.

Calvin Bassey – 6

He’s started to look way more comfortable when he’s played at left-back. It wasn’t an amazing display by the ex-Leicester defender but he’s way better than Borna Barisic. Did great in stoppage time to stop a Motherwell counter-attack.

Glen Kamara – 6

It was a decent display by Kamars in the middle. He’d have liked to have contributed more but the Finland international didn’t really do anything wrong.

Scott Arfield – 5

Arfield played how you really don’t want to see midfielders playing against teams like Motherwell. He slowed the game down and really didn’t offer much going forward due to being played in a less advanced role by van Bronckhorst.

Joe Aribo – 6

Anonymous. Due to injuries to Ryan Jack and Aaron Ramsey, van Bronckhorst had to play Aribo and Arfield in deeper roles and it just didn’t work. Has the manager given up on James Sands already?

Fashion Sakala – 7

Sakala scored a superb goal in the first half and looked lively for large parts of the game. Sakala loves to play against Motherwell but he needs to play more consistently throughout games and over the course of several fixtures.

Ryan Kent – 8 (Man of the match)

Kent assisted both of Rangers’ first-half goals and was a constant menace to the Motherwell defence with his pace, dribbling and crossing. One of his better performances, it’s just a shame that the Gers were let down by really sloppy defensive errors.

Alfredo Morelos – 6

Morelos was hungry for goals. He’ll be gutted that he didn’t get credited for Rangers’ first goal as it went down as an own goal while he also had two in the second half disallowed for being offside. Morelos maybe let his hunger get the better of him, which led to him straying offside.

Substitutes:

Kemar Roofe (on for Sakala, 83) – 4

In other Rangers news, an ex-FIFA official has warned of a major punishment after video evidence emerged from the draw with Borussia Dortmund at Ibrox.