Motherwell 2-2 Rangers: Dead man walking

Morning everyone, the atmosphere around Rangers sunk to an even lower ebb with a 2-2 draw at Fir park yesterday. Where to begin?

I did say that the lineup didn't matter in my match preview. But somehow Phil surprised us all by starting Dowell over Cerny, Cortes over Hagi and Dessers over Igamane. Most fans felt like this was him trying to get sacked.

In the pre-match interview Clement revealed that Hagi was ill so missed out on the squad. Cerny and Igamane were "tired" and he'd been told they couldn't start. Needless to say hearing that did nothing to lift the mood around the lineup. We'd struggled against St Mirren because we didn't start our best team, and in the very next game we did the same thing.

The game got off to a fairly standard start. Dessers actually had a very presentable chance to put us in front from a Yilmaz cross, his effort was saved. That was as good as it got in the first half really.

Motherwell took the lead after a long ball was headed into the oppositions striker by Propper. Following a one-two around Sterling, Stamatelopoulos was able to poke the ball past Butland and we found ourselves a goal down.

It's hard to describe just how shambolic this goal was from start to finish. The initial long ball was dealt with laughably by Propper. There were questions about handball from the Motherwell striker, it hit his hand,but it wasn't a deliberate handball and it didn't directly lead to a goal so I had no issues with it. Following that, for the actual chance itself Butland doesn't cover himself in glory at all. He comes out of his goal a little bit but it's almost like he realises that's the wrong move, so stops, which means Stamatelopoulos is encouraged to hit it early and his finish goes under the English keeper.

1-0 down away from home again and I wondered if it could get worse. It could. A lobbed cross is dealt with poorly by Sterling who doesn't get enough on his header, before Maswanhise takes the ball down brilliantly before turning and finishing into the bottom corner. 2-0 and I started to go beyond anger into the gentle embrace of apathy.

We had the odd chance in the first half. Danilo headed wide after another good Yilmaz cross. Cortes miscued a side foot effort after Dowell played him in.

The tone of the first half for me was how soft we looked physically. Even Raskin who is normally so redoubtable in the challenge was getting knocked off the ball by Motherwell players easily. But he looked like a lion compared to Cortes, Dowell and Diomande. Each of them seemed nonchalant in their duels and we struggled to hold the ball in good areas as a result.

That's two very physical teams we've played away from home and it seems like the team was woefully prepared for the physical challenge presented. And on Oscar Cortes, unsurprisingly he looked like someone lacking match sharpness, if only he'd been on the bench in recent games and the manager could have brought him on to build up that sharpness.

We got to half time only 2 goals down and everyone could see the changes coming. Cerny and Igamane replaced their replacements and the second half got underway.

The intensity was alot better, just like in the previous match. We harried and harassed Motherwell who seemed to slip back into their shells a little bit.

Igamane promptly grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. Battering home a left-footed finish after Danilo had hit the post to make it 2-1. Before finding the equaliser from the left side of the pitch with a brilliant curling effort. 2-2.

Despite the way we wasted the first half, we were level. I should probably mention Motherwell had an offside goal and a goal chopped off for a foul on Butland before we equalised, both set pieces.

We equalised in the 68th minute. So I thought with the momentum we'd go on and win the game. It wouldn't have changed my feelings on Clement, but a win is the minimum requirement right now.

Despite having all that time (with an additional 10 minutes due to all the VAR checks going on) we failed to really turn the screw. We had lots of territory and lots of individuals trying to produce some magic. But no cohesion, no game plan. Matondo and Bajrami were introduced. Both seemed to wander around, playing their own game. It was a stark reminder that our form recently, both good and bad, has largely come from individual performances rather than a strong system allowing the team to flourish.

Danilo had a decent chance late on. But that was all we could produce from a ridiculous amount of time on the ball, with Motherwell content to sit in.

So it was over, and most of us are hoping it's really over for the manager. It's hard to look past just how poor we've been this season. The expectation with Clement quickly vanished after Kyiv at home and Celtic away. Supporters have largely been in limbo, waiting for this season to end.

I can see why the club wouldn't want to give an interim coach his debut in an Old Firm. But there's no chance of this team getting a result with Clement in charge. The players do not want to fight for him, the fans are done with him and most of the players to be quite honest.

Clement stayed in character by giving a ridiculous post match interview about how if he'd started Cerny and Igamane, and they'd got injured then he'd be called "stupid". Hate to break it to you Phil, but they're calling you much worse already.