Stephen Craigan blasts ‘criminal’ Motherwell for what they did in first half v Rangers
Stephen Craigan labelled Motherwell’s start against Rangers as “criminal” as they shipped two early goals to Kieran Dowell and Todd Cantwell in their 2-0 defeat at Fir Park.
It took just four minutes for the first goal to fly in, with Dowell latching onto a mistake in midfield before striving forward and unleashing an unstoppable strike past Liam Kelly. Cantwell compounded their misery after 16 minutes with a second goal.
Rather than highlight the fantastic attacking play from Philippe Clement’s men, Craigan focused on The Steelmen’s slow start to the match against Rangers.
“Everything you can’t afford to do in the first 15 minutes, Motherwell did it and that’s absolutely criminal,” he said on BBC Sportsound on Friday (24 December).
“For them now to go and score three goals against Rangers to win the game, I can’t see it happening.”
Terrible Steelmen
While Motherwell were extremely poor, it was up to Rangers to take the opportunity in their stride, and they did. Dowell scored his first goal in the Scottish Premiership since a 4-0 win over Livingston in August, celebrating his long-awaited return from injury in the last two matches.
Cantwell also scored his eighth Rangers goal since joining the club from Norwich City earlier this year, who was unlucky not to finish the first half with a hat-trick.
Although not very likely for Motherwell to come back from 2-0 down, the Gers will have been very aware that anything can happen in football and they needed to take any opportunity to extend their lead to diminish any chance of a fightback.
Rangers are unbeaten in 20 attempts, with Motherwell last winning in 2017 in the Scottish League Cup final. So that may have played a part in The Steelmen’s sloppy start to the game.
However, it will have been a huge boost for Clement, who made a much-needed change just after the hour mark to conserve energy in one of his key players – Abdallah Sima. With the Old Firm derby on the horizon, that is very important.
In other Rangers news, Dujon Sterling has claimed that his recent form is a result of watching videos of Yaya Toure on YouTube.