Motherwell came out of the blocks and put the Rangers defence under constant pressure from the start. It took the Lanarkshire side 15 minutes to break down the Rangers rear guard when a free kick from John Kane was met by John Paul Grant and his header came of the foot of the post and crossed the line as the despairing Reidford tried in vain to reach it.
Rangers started to come more into the game, using Agnew wide out on the left wing, and on 20 minutes John Johnston, on for the injured Brian Gilmour after only quarter of an hour, missed a good chance created by the wide play of Agnew. Motherwell continued to threaten constantly and a dangerous ball into the middle of the Rangers 18 yard box caused panic until it was cleared. The match was now swinging from end to end and Agnew was being worked hard on the left but his good crosses were to no avail as N’Guessan failed to take advantage of his height and was no threat in the air.
Dany N’Guessan was a better threat on the ground and took some heavy punishment as the ‘Well defence tried to stop him as his physical power brushed aside much of the heavy challenges. On 35 minutes he was brought down outside the box but Seven Lennons free kick was blocked twice by the Motherwell defence, desperate to maintain their one goal advantage before half time came.
Rangers came out attacking from the start of the Second Half and were able to push Motherwell on their back foot with Paul Emslie taking control of the midfield and was influential as Rangers looked for the equaliser, his free kick going narrowly wide on 63 minutes. After that Emslie beat 4 Motherwell defenders as he dribbled his way into the box but his cross to Ure was weakly shot into the arms of the ‘Well ‘keeper.
Emslie then put Lennon through and with only the ‘keeper to beat sent his shot wide on 73 minutes.
2 minutes later however the breakthrough arrived when Emslie had a shot blocked and the ball fell to substitute Sammy Woods whose angled shot beat the ‘keeper at the far post to give Rangers a deserved equaliser.
Both side then went searching for the goal which would be a winner and N’Guessan was unfortunate when his attempt was cleared off the line and Calum Reidford was called on late in the game to save at the feet of Adam Coakley who broke through and for the second time in the match Reidford was injured following a clash with the forward, this time the challenge meriting the only yellow card of an extremely hard fought match.
RANGERS; Reidford, Lowing, Ure, McMillan, Smith, Emslie, Lennon, Gilmour (Johnston 15), N’Guessan, McLachlan, Agnew (Woods 62).
Unused subs; Gallacher, Kinniburgh, Stirling