Rangers’ cup win over Motherwell should be ‘reference game’

Philippe Clement wants Rangers’ 2-1 Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Motherwell at Hampden Park to be a reference point for the rest of the season.

Former Light Blues midfielder Andy Halliday opened the scoring in the 24th minute but second-half strikes from striker Cyriel Dessers and attacker Nedim Bajrami set up a final meeting with Celtic on December 15.

The Belgian boss came in for huge criticism following Rangers’ midweek defeat at Aberdeen which left them nine points behind William Hill Premiership leaders Celtic and the Dons, but he was pleased with the cup holders’ eventual response.

“We got where we want to be, which is the final,” said Clement, who revealed Tom Lawrence, who went off in the first half with a leg injury, will be assessed ahead of Thursday’s Europa League game against Olympiacos in Athens.

“It was probably the worst scenario that you can have.

“Starting the game well, creating chances and then on the first really dangerous ball in the box that you concede the goal.

“But this needs to be also a reference game for this new squad… to do what we did a lot last season and it’s to dig in and keep our belief, to keep on going, to keep on fighting and to break the wall if we go behind.

“This can be a massive game at the end of the season, to have this one as a reference. I want to see this mentality every three days.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about but talking is not enough. We need to do it on the pitch.

“I can talk about a lot of things but it needs to happen also.

“They need to feel it also. They can believe in these difficult moments to keep on pushing, to break open the wall of Motherwell with a lot of movement, with a lot of positive aggression also when we lost the ball. Like that, we created a lot of chances today.

“It should have been more and I want to see much more of that in the next weeks and the next months.”

Asked how tough a test Celtic will be in the final, the Belgian said: “It’s a big challenge – the biggest in Scotland. That’s also a good thing. It’s the next step to take to win this League Cup again.”

Well boss Stuart Kettlewell expected a reaction from Rangers following their defeat at Aberdeen but believes his team should have been awarded a foul in the build-up to the second goal.

“Listen, bitterly disappointed,” he said. “I think everyone can see how much we poured into the game.

“We obviously got ourselves into a real good position at half-time.

“You believe that there’s always going to be some sort of fall-out, from Rangers’ point of view. You know there’s going to be a reaction. And, as I said to the players there, I never want to be a glorious loser.

“So I don’t want to sit here in front of anybody and start to make excuses or start to pat ourselves on the back because we get to this stage.

“It’s been a good achievement to get here. But we just felt that in moments of the game we probably just lacked that wee bit of composure and a wee bit better decision-making.

“I think the second goal was symptomatic of that. The second goal Rangers get was probably, well, it was a foul on Zach Robinson, I think, which the referee’s maybe acknowledged at the time. But he stays on his feet, tries to keep the ball alive.

“No criticism of Zach, he’s too honest sometimes. But I just felt that that was one that led to a square pass and obviously the break and the counter-attack at that stage for Rangers.

“But the next stage for us, off the back of what is a sore one today, is just to try and pick the players up because we don’t want a hangover off the back of a disappointing day.”