RANGERS 1 MOTHERWELL 0: Ryan Naderi makes the difference but Ibrox men will have to be more clinical in front of goal

There’s no question Rangers made a sufficient number of chances to win a couple of games here. 

With captain Lawrence Shankland taken off early-doors, though, as a result of what seems a nasty hamstring pull, it says a lot that it took an invitation from visiting goalkeeper Alex Paulsen to walk the ball into the net that made the difference.

This was a perfectly competitive game that undoubtedly saw the points go to the right place in the end, with Motherwell carving out their own share of opportunities despite never really hitting peak form.

However, Rangers will have to be an awful lot more clinical than this going forward to make an already-fraught season any kind of success.

Paulsen gifted them the three points here with a terrible error after just 12 minutes, getting caught at the edge of his own area by Shankland’s replacement Ryan Naderi with the ball at his feet and then watching the German forward roll it home unchallenged.

Yet, Derek McInnes’ men will know they have to be able to rely on more than just gifts from the opposition if they are going to get over a sticky start to the campaign and keep racking up the victories they need.

They had some really gilt-edged openings against a Motherwell side that finished the game having enjoyed almost 60 per cent of the possession, but lacked composure when and where it really mattered.

South Korean attacker Kim Min-su had a bit of a shocker, truth be told. He missed a penalty on the half-hour and spurned at least one other great chance before making way for £9million new boy Kevin Kelsy in the second half.

Kelsy put himself around well during his 20-minute cameo and received a warm response, but joined James Penrice in being denied by the woodwork when he should have burst the net. In the end, it finished up a competition between the Venezuelan and fellow substitute Daisuke Yokota for the worst miss of the day.

Just minutes after Kelsy’s effort off the top of the bar, the Japanese winger had the ball passed to him by Lukas Fadinger as Motherwell got themselves into another fankle in their own area.

His effort, high and wide by absolute miles, was hardly likely to win fans round after what has been a somewhat underwhelming start to his career in Light Blue.

The cheer that went round the stadium at the final whistle said a lot, though. Right now, winning means more than the performance for Rangers and their punters.

All these new faces at Rangers need to knit together and settle on a way of playing and this was better than some of the stuff seen from them so far. A lack of real creativity in midfield remains a concern, though, even though Dan Neil did put in a good shift in the centre here.

Manager McInnes, watching from the stand as he completed a suspension, will have taken encouragement from some of his side’s build-up play and the number of chances eked out — even if the end result generally left a lot to be desired.

For Motherwell, mind you, there is likely to be a residing sense as they reflect on this match that they contributed massively to their own downfall and didn’t quite keep the pedal to the metal in the second half.

Tawanda Maswanhise had a couple of clear sights at goal, but put his efforts too close to keeper Ivor Pandur. Same goes for Alex Lowry with an effort he had midway through the opening period.

Still, for all that, it all boiled down to Paulsen’s 12th-minute foul-up in the end. It put Alfred Johansson’s side behind the eight-ball from the start.

It kicked off with the ball taking a ricochet off Naderi, introduced for Shankland just four minutes earlier, in the centre of the field and bouncing forward into no-man’s land. The backtracking Martin Moormann rolled it back to the Kiwi keeper on the edge of his own area and it looked like a case of Motherwell just having to reset and build from the back again.

That’s when it all went a bit topsy-turvy. Paulsen took a touch, tried to shunt the ball to his left to make space and evade the advancing Naderi and got caught. Simple as that.

Naderi won the ball and found himself with the simple task of knocking it into the empty net.

Look, we know what Motherwell are all about and have been since last season. They try to play their way out of trouble, they are built on everyone being confident in possession. It’s great. No one has any objections to the game being played that way.

However, this was just a rush of blood to the head from the keeper. A needless gamble that proved to be a very costly one for his side in the final shakedown.

No matter how strong the passing philosophy within a team, there is always a time to just get shot of the ball. That was it.

With Maswanhise testing Pandur and Kim then seeing a header well saved by Paulsen low to his right, Rangers’ opportunity to put this to bed arrived when Djeidi Gassama, who looked lively on the left, was brought down in the area by Tom Sparrow when jumping to try and connect with a ball floated in by Dan Neil.

Referee Duncan Nicolson wasted no time in pointing to the spot and it felt a fait accompli when a player possessing the clear technique of Kim took on the responsibilities. Gosh, how wrong we all were.

His shot went so far wide of Paulsen’s right-hand post that you instinctively felt the keeper must have touched it. He didn’t. It was just an awful, awful, off-target howler. And it wasn’t the only time in the day when home fans felt things might have been so different had Shankland stayed on the field.

Gassama had a header saved late in the first 45 and Penrice was only denied by the upright shortly after the break when moving onto a ball across from Findlay Curtis after Kim had put a shot from a prime position too close to Paulsen.

Motherwell’s best chance probably came just after the hour. Substitute Jardell Kanga, on for Ibrahim Said at the interval, sent Maswanhise scampering up the right channel with a lovely slide-rule pass.

Rangers had been sprung. The Zimbabwean had a clear sight of the target. However, his low drive, although struck cleanly, was way too close to Pandur in the home goal.

Nico Raskin, in the starting line-up following the collapse of a move to Turkish side Besiktas, then had a shot cleared off the line by Moormann before Yokota made a ricket of his big chance and Kelsy then fired that effort off the top of the bar after moving onto a low cross from Penrice in an absolutely perfect position directly in front of the target.

It was the story of the afternoon, really. So wasteful.

Rangers were OK here. They deserved what they got. They’ve still got some way to go, though, before you can say they look totally convincing — and, with Shankland looking likely to face a spell on the sidelines, they are going to have to get it together in front of goal when presented with the kind of openings they had in this one.

Kevin Kelsy. It’s time for your close-up.