Rangers 2-1 Motherwell: Delaying the inevitable

I don't think I'm the only one who watched Andy Halliday put Motherwell in-front at Hampden yesterday, and thought "well, this is it". And on the basis of that front half, who could blame me.

In what has become a real pattern, Rangers huffed and puffed for the first 45, there was no game plan for going forward. Something I wrote down multiple times in the first half was "Where are they meant to be playing?", this didn't feel like positional freedom as much as no one knew what the Manager wanted so just tried to solve the problem themselves.

Jefte especially seemed to just keep following the ball even if he ended up on the right hand side of the pitch? It wasn't the best half of football he will ever play for Rangers. It was capped off by his bizarre defending at the goal, I'm not sure anyone knows what was going on in his mind there.

When Lawrence limped off for Diomande it really seemed like it was going to be another day full of injury and disappointment. And then to really cap off the half, Dessers missed a sitter after the keeper spilled a Diomande shot from distance.

Half time felt flat, I muted the analysis because honestly I didn't need to hear how bad we were, I'd seen it for myself. How were we going to change things I wondered?

We didn't really, there was maybe a bit more urgency about the team, Cerny had a decent game and really tried to make things happen. He played a great ball for Barron who had got beyond the midfield, he cut it back to Dessers who finished cleverly at the near post. It was a nice move, and hopefully one that will give Dessers a bit of confidence back. Once again though, he struggled overall.

He was withdrawn not long after his goal for Danilo, with Dujon Sterling introduced for Tavernier. It was a timely change as we'd started to drop off after our equaliser. Danilo has certainly looked inconsistent in many of his limited minutes this season. But in this game he showed a real positive impact off the bench, he ran the channels and got in defenders faces all game. It was a welcome change from Dessers who seems to be scared to do anything right now.

Those changes really gave us some zip in our play, and suddenly we actually seemed to be threatening the Motherwell backline. It was far too long in coming, and I don't think this is us turning a corner of any kind. But it was a positive set of changes that really seemed to energise the team, maybe Clement will put his money where his mouth is and start the two of them next game.

It feels strange to say given the first half, but with our new found momentum and Motherwell's lack of response, the winner felt inevitable. We seemed to be finding more space on the break too. Eventually we had the ball on halfway with Diomande, he fizzed a brilliant ball to Cerny, the Czech winger drove us forward, Danilo made a great run to open up the space, Cerny played it to the onrushing Bajrami who took a touch and shot. The shot deflected off the defender and looped over the keeper. It was nice to see us get that kind of luck for a change.

With that, it seemed like we were on our way, we created a few more half chances, but eventually just settled down and saw out the game.

So there we are, in another league cup final against Celtic. Relying on Clement to find a way to beat them which we haven't seen so far.

Winning games of football is always nice, winning semi-finals is an even nicer feeling. But after the match it all feels a bit hollow when you know you have no confidence in the manager finding a way to win that final. I'm dreading the prospect of a cup final with Clement in charge, the way we've played in big games this season makes me think there's only going to be one outcome.

In the post-match interview, Clement was keen to highlight the resilience of the team. And the team definitely showed some grit to come back, but some would maybe wonder why we need to fight back from a goal down so often? When we have such a massive squad and monetary advantage over 90% of the league.

I don't know how to take Sunday's result, it feels like we could be going round in circles. I honestly think on Thursday it will just be normal service resumed.

It's hard going at the moment, and somehow a win hasn't made things any easier. Have a good week folks.