Ryan Naderi secures Rangers win over Motherwell

Ryan Naderi punished a calamitous Motherwell mix-up to fire Rangers to a narrow win at Ibrox – and haul them up to second in the Scottish Premiership.

The substitute, on early for the injured Lawrence Shankland, scored the only goal of the game after a moment of madness from visiting goalkeeper Alex Paulsen, as Derek McInnes’ side ground out a victory that was far more dominant than the scoreline.

McInnes in the stands, Shankland on the deck

McInnes, serving the second match of a two-game touchline ban for comments made last season while at Hearts, had to watch from the directors’ box. What he saw in the opening 10 minutes would have churned his stomach.

Motherwell started with purpose and aggression. Then came the jolt. Shankland, the captain and focal point of the Rangers attack, pulled up off the ball and immediately signalled trouble. After barely nine minutes, his afternoon was over. A “significant hamstring injury”, McInnes later admitted, and possibly a recurrence of the problem that plagued him at Hearts.

Naderi was thrown on cold. Within minutes, he had changed the game.

Paulsen’s horror moment, Naderi’s gift

The goal was a mess from Motherwell’s point of view and a gift for a striker craving an opening.

A couple of loose touches between the visiting centre-backs left them scrambling, the ball eventually being nudged back towards Paulsen. Instead of clearing his lines, the goalkeeper tried to be clever, attempting to dance away from the on-rushing Naderi on the edge of his area.

He got it horribly wrong.

Naderi nicked the ball cleanly, strode into space and rolled it into an empty net. He will rarely score an easier goal. Rangers, who had lost their captain minutes earlier, suddenly had the lead and a jolt of belief.

Motherwell wobbled. Rangers pressed. The noise inside Ibrox rose.

Pandur stands tall as Motherwell threaten

For all Rangers’ control, Motherwell still carved out enough chances to leave McInnes cursing his side’s finishing and decision-making at the other end.

Ivor Pandur produced two vital first-half saves to protect the lead. First, he reacted sharply to deny Regan Charles-Cook after a smart move opened up the home defence. Then he plunged low to his right to beat away Alex Lowry’s effort at the end of a slick counter-attack.

Those stops underlined why McInnes later called the performance “more than the scoreline suggested”. Rangers had the better of the game, but Motherwell always had a puncher’s chance.

Penalty drama and Minsu’s nightmare

The pressure on the visitors grew just after the half-hour mark. Djeidi Gassama darted into the box to meet a Dan Neil cross and was wiped out by a clumsy challenge from Tom Sparrow. The referee pointed straight to the spot.

With regular taker Shankland already in the treatment room, Minsu Kim took responsibility. He placed the ball, took his run-up – and dragged the penalty wide.

It was the first of three big moments that went begging for the South Korean forward. Before the spot-kick, he had headed straight at Pandur from a promising position. After it, he was denied again when Paulsen stood tall in a one-on-one early in the second half, the rebound cannoning off the post and away.

On another day, Minsu walks off with a brace and the narrative flips. On this one, his misses framed Motherwell’s frustration.

Rangers waste chances to kill it

Rangers, for their part, should have been out of sight.

Nico Raskin saw a low effort hacked off the line with Paulsen beaten. Daisuke Yokota, introduced alongside Kevin Kelsy as McInnes freshened his attack, sliced wide with the goal gaping. It felt easier to score.

Kelsy, making his debut, had the chance to crown his first appearance with a goal when he found space in the box. He leant back, lost his composure and sent his shot sailing over the bar.

McInnes later admitted he was “annoyed and a bit frustrated” that his team failed to add to their lead. The performance, he argued, was far stronger than a 1-0 suggests. The evidence on the pitch backed him up.

Managers’ verdicts: relief and regret

From the stands, McInnes watched his side control large spells, limit Motherwell to bursts on the break and lean on the depth of his squad after Shankland’s injury.

“He’s a bit down about things and he might be out for a while,” the Rangers manager said of his captain. But he pointed quickly to the response: Naderi’s goal, Kelsy’s lively debut, and the attacking options he believes can carry the load in Shankland’s absence.

On the opposite side, Alfred Johansson cut a realistic figure. He accepted Rangers were the better team and deserved the points.

“We didn’t play to our best today and they got the game they wanted,” he said, though he refused to hang Paulsen out to dry for the decisive error. For Johansson, the regret lay elsewhere: the missed chances that could have turned a bad day into something far more productive.

Even off-colour, his Motherwell side still carved out openings. That, he insisted, shows the potential waiting to be unlocked.

Rangers, though, have the points and second place. The performance hinted at more to come. The only cloud is Shankland’s hamstring – and how long this push can maintain its edge without their talisman leading the line.