Rangers Edge Past Motherwell Thanks to Naderi's Goal
Ryan Naderi pounced on a calamitous defensive error to fire Rangers past Motherwell and up to second in the Scottish Premiership – on a night when Derek McInnes lost his captain but found another match-winner.
McInnes in the stands, Shankland in the treatment room
McInnes, serving the second game of a two-match touchline ban for comments made last season while at Hearts, was again marooned in the Ibrox stands. From there, the Rangers manager watched his evening take an early, worrying twist.
Motherwell started sharper, snapping into challenges and carrying threat on the break, when Lawrence Shankland suddenly pulled up off the ball. After barely 10 minutes, the captain’s night was over. The early diagnosis? “A significant hamstring injury,” McInnes later admitted, fearing a recurrence of the issue that troubled Shankland at Hearts.
Shankland trudged off, head down. On came Ryan Naderi. Within minutes, the mood changed.
Naderi punishes Paulsen’s rush of blood
The goal was a gift. A nightmare in claret and amber.
A couple of loose touches from Motherwell’s centre-backs sent the ball skidding back towards Alex Paulsen. The goalkeeper had time to clear. Instead, he tried to be cute, to take on the on-rushing Naderi on the edge of his box.
It was an awful decision.
Naderi closed him down, nicked the ball cleanly, and suddenly the goal was unguarded. He simply rolled it into the empty net. On 12 minutes, with his first real involvement, the substitute had Rangers in front. He will rarely have an easier finish; he may not score a more important one for some time.
The error might have broken a lesser goalkeeper. Paulsen refused to shrink.
Pandur stands tall as Motherwell threaten
At the other end, Ivor Pandur produced the kind of performance that underpins title challenges.
Motherwell responded well to going behind. Regan Charles-Cook forced Pandur into his first big stop, the Rangers keeper reacting sharply to beat away a firm effort. Not long after, a slick Motherwell counter ripped through the home side, Alex Lowry driving a low shot towards the bottom corner. Pandur again got down superbly to turn it away.
Rangers, though, carried the greater weight of chances. Minsu Kim should have doubled the lead when he rose to meet a cross but headed straight at Paulsen. The miss stung – and within moments, the game lurched again.
Djeidi Gassama darted into the box to attack a Dan Neil delivery and was clattered by Tom Sparrow. The challenge was clumsy, the decision straightforward. Penalty.
With Shankland already off, responsibility fell to Minsu. He placed the ball, took his run-up, and dragged the spot-kick wide. Paulsen guessed, but he didn’t need to move. Rangers had let Motherwell off the hook.
Missed chances keep Motherwell alive
The pattern after the break stayed the same: Rangers on the front foot, Motherwell hanging in, the game one mistake away from turning.
Minsu again found space, this time denied by Paulsen, who stood tall to block. The rebound smacked the post and bounced clear. The South Korean forward’s night ended soon after, withdrawn along with Gassama as McInnes turned to his bench again. On came Daisuke Yokota and Kevin Kelsy, the latter handed his Rangers debut.
The pressure finally told in terms of territory, if not on the scoreboard. Nico Raskin saw a goal-bound effort hacked off the line. Yokota then sliced horribly wide with the goal gaping, a chance that begged to be finished.
Kelsy had his own moment. A loose ball dropped kindly, the angle inviting. The debutant leaned back and lashed over, unable to crown his first appearance with the gloss goal McInnes craved.
The misses kept Motherwell interested. One clean break, one set-piece, and the narrative could have flipped. Yet they never quite found the precision in the final third to punish Rangers’ wastefulness.
Managers’ verdicts: relief, regret and a warning
From his vantage point in the stands, McInnes saw enough to be satisfied – and just enough to be annoyed.
“It was a very strong performance; it was more than the scoreline suggested,” he said. “We restricted a very good Motherwell team. I’m just annoyed and a bit frustrated that we didn’t add to our lead.”
On Shankland, the concern was clear. “It looks like a significant hamstring injury and it might be a recurrence of the one he had at Hearts last season. He’s a bit down about things and he might be out for a while.” The message that followed was blunt: the squad will now be judged.
“I think Shankland has benefitted from the extra attacking impetus we’ve had. He was in good form but it’s all about the squad and players now need to step up. Kelsy was good on his debut and Naderi got his goal; we’ve got quality to lean on.”
On the opposite bench, Alfred Johansson refused to hang Paulsen out to dry for his costly mistake.
“Congratulations to Rangers; they were the better team, they deserved the three points today,” the Motherwell boss admitted. “We didn’t play to our best today and they got the game they wanted.”
“Alex Paulsen is a great goalkeeper who has shown that again and again and again. He showed that today. The mistake isn’t even a point for me today.”
Johansson instead chose to focus on what his side created, even on an off-day.
“When I watch the video and when I show the video to my players they will see the potential. We are on a bad day creating a couple of chances, which could’ve made a big difference. Rangers will feel they should have at least two more and we stayed in the game so that’s a positive.”
Rangers walk away with a narrow win, a clean sheet and second place – but also a fresh injury cloud over their captain. If Naderi’s opportunism is a glimpse of the depth McInnes can trust, the coming weeks will reveal whether this squad can absorb the loss of its talisman and still stay on the shoulders of the leaders.
