MOTHERWELL manager Mark McGhee launched a scathing attack on his own players following their 2-1 defeat to Rangers, insisting it was the worst performance of his stewardship.
McGhee had been hopeful of leaving Ibrox with all three points – but claimed his players should be hanging their heads in shame instead after failing to get out of first gear until late in the game.
Goals from Steven Davis and Nacho Novo kept Rang
ers at the summit of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League despite a late strike from David Clarkson which proved to be too little too late from the visiting side.
"I feel it's the worst performance we've had since I've been at the football club," said McGhee.
"We were inept in every department, we were second to every ball, we never won a header, we never kept a ball.
"I've never felt as disappointed about a performance since I've been at the club. It's not happened to me with this group of players before. I thought we were coming here to win, I really did. I felt we had a team set up with strength, energy, ability. We love coming here and it just all seemed right to me – but we never turned up.
"The fact that we didn't lose 5-0, you would need to ask Walter (Smith] about that because if a team had played against me like that, I would have been expecting to win 5-0."
Rangers had the bulk of the possession early on and carved out the first opportunity when Davis provided the cross for Kenny Miller in the box and the striker narrowly fired over.
As usual Pedro Mendes was involved in much of the action and supplied a lovely chip for Kris Boyd, who left the ball for Miller, but Graeme Smith managed to smother before the striker could pull the trigger.
Miller looked most likely to make the breakthrough, this time pouncing on a through-ball from Boyd and managing to squeeze a shot between two amber jerseys – but the effort trundled across the face of goal and wide.
But the Motherwell goalkeeper was plucking the ball out of the net after 56 minutes when Davis pounced on a Miller ball before racing into the box and rifling home with Smith stranded.
Boyd then claimed to have been clipped in the box by Mark Reynolds but no penalty was forthcoming and the striker earned himself a yellow card for his efforts.
Only the heroics of keeper Neil Alexander prevented the visitors from restoring parity when he threw himself across goal and punched a swerving Clarkson effort to safety as Motherwell pushed for an equaliser.
Marcus Beasley was withdrawn for the introduction of Novo with 71 minutes gone and the little Spaniard had the three points wrapped up four minutes later.
Miller whipped a teasing ball across the face of goal and Smith's attempts at a clearance fell only as far as Novo six yards out who bundled home without knowing a great deal about the goal.
Motherwell tried to spark a comeback when Clarkson collected a ball from the right and volleyed home from a few yards out with three minutes remaining – but it was too little too late for the Steelmen.
The opening goal was Davis' first strike since penning a permanent deal with the Ibrox club last month and he is hoping to make a real impact in the scoring charts this season.
He said: "I didn't score as many as I would have liked during my loan spell here and that's something I've been trying to do this season so it was nice to get my first one. As midfield players, we have to chip in with the goals and help out the strikers – hopefully that's something I can improve on throughout the season."
He added: "Motherwell frustrated us in the first half.
We probably should have made it a bit more comfortable but we were delighted with the three points."
The full article contains 672 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
