Rangers reduced Celtic's Scottish Premier League lead to four points with a nervy 1-0 victory at home to Motherwell on Wednesday.
Gers captain Barry Ferguson scored the only goal of the game in the 74th minute to give his side their first SPL victory since they defeated their Old Firm rivals on March 29. And the result means Rangers, who have two games in hand over Celtic, still have the destination of the SPL in their hands.
Walter Smith was satisfied with the win, but praised Motherwell’s performance.
“You have to give Motherwell credit. They set out their team well and made it awkward for us,” Smith said. “We started the game very well and had two or three good chances in the first 15 minutes, but after that Motherwell had a bit of possession and frustrated us. If they’d had a better final ball they could have hurts us more, but in the second half we had most of the territorial play although we missed a wee bit of spark in the final third. But I was just delighted when we got the goal and it was a big victory for us at this stage in the season.”
The Ibrox side had ditched their familiar 4-5-1 formation for a more attacking 4-4-2 in a game they knew they had to win. In the second minute Ferguson’s slide-rule pass put Kris Boyd racing in on goal, but a great saving tackle by Motherwell defender Stephen Craigan blocked his shot.
Rangers were desperately close to the opener in the 10th minute. David Weir got on the end of Steven Davis’ corner to send a looping header toward the top corner, only for Motherwell goalkeeper Graeme Smith to make a fine save, tipping the ball onto the crossbar. The rebound fell to Nacho Novo, but the Spaniard could only smash the ball into the side-netting.
After those early chances Motherwell grew in confidence and began to play some nice possession soccer that frustrated the Rangers fans, but did not result in clear scoring opportunities.
However, in the 34th minute the visitors should have been ahead when two former Gers linked-up. Stephen Hughes raced down the left, cut inside and rolled the ball across to Ross McCormack, but from only meters out he dragged his shot wide.
Just before halftime Rangers’ French forward Jean-Claude Darcheville should have hit the target instead of screwing the ball wide. Motherwell had their goalkeeper to thank for keeping the score level in the 69th minute when he dived bravely at the feet of Novo, who had looked certain to score.
Although Rangers were now dominating, their supporters — making up the vast majority of the 48,238 crowd — were becoming increasingly nervous the longer the game remained goalless. However, the Ibrox side’s captain led by example in the 74th minute to score a goal that could decide the destination of the title.
Another corner from Davis was nodded on to the back post where Ferguson was waiting to fire a right-foot shot back across goal and into the opposite top corner of the net.
Motherwell manager Mark McGhee was disappointed at the goal his side conceded, but was not too downhearted at the result.
“The defeat today has not harmed our ambitions of finishing third and qualifying for the UEFA Cup. Anything we manage to take from Rangers or Celtic is a bonus and Saturday’s game against Aberdeen is more important,” McGhee said. “We played well but conceded another poor goal. We lost goals from cross balls against Celtic and Dundee United and we lost another one against Rangers, so I’m annoyed about that.”
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
Jonas Vingegaard on Tuesday claimed the overall Vuelta a Espana lead while Jay Vine earned the stage 10 victory for his second triumph of the race. Two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard overhauled Torstein Traen’s lead to head the general classification by 26 seconds from the Norwegian, with Joao Almeida third and trailing the Dane by 38 seconds. Vine put in an unmatchable performance on the final climb to finish ahead of Spanish Movistar riders Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo. “Back in red, I’m happy with it, it’s a beautiful jersey,” Vingegaard said. “I’m happy with how the day went,
Brentford striker Yoane Wissa says he wants to leave the English Premier League club and that it is “unduly standing in my way.” A day before the end of soccer’s summer transfer period, Wissa posted a lengthy statement on social media yesterday criticizing Brentford for rejecting an apparent offer from another Premier League club despite his willingness to switch between the teams. Wissa, a reported target for Newcastle, is yet to play for Brentford this season and had already removed any association with the club from his Instagram account. Yesterday, the 28-year-old DR Congo international took it a step further on the social