Motherwell had just the better of the first half with Khelad Kemas confirming his existence with a bright opening spell that saw a shot from the edge of the box go narrowly wide and another early effort cleared off the line after a ‘Well corner.
Khaled Kemas fills a hole in the wall
Both teams had chances to score in what was a fairly entertaining first half on a typical cold wet miserable Scottish evening. Billy Dodds missed a simple looking chance after some good play by Rangers and after another decent move Stephen Dobbie skied an effort over the bar for the visitors. Motherwell’s other notable efforts came from a Russell run and cross from out wide, Kemas with another shot blocked nd David Clark’s drive from just outside the box which just missed..
After a halftime pie debacle (for us fans, I presume the players were unaffected) the teams came back out and provided some more good action and some goals too. Kemas was again prominent as he sent Jack through on goal, his shot unfortunately blazed over. Then came the breakthrough a cross from Clarke was surprisingly knocked back for Russell (he seemed in a good position for a direct header on goal) who stroked the ball into the corner of the net to give the ‘Well the lead.
Unfortunately from there on in Rangers had the better of the play. An equaliser soon followed when Billy Dodds was left unmarked in the box to shoot through Dubourdeau’s legs. The winning goal duly came from a corner with a simple header bulleted past Dubourdeau to make it 2-1. However we still managed to miss a glorious chance to take a deserved point when Kemas, through on goal, cut back to Russell for a simple tap in. The pass was played a fraction out of Russell’s reach and a great chance was missed. Kemas perhaps should have taken a shot, it looked like he wanted to go down but decided against it at last moment. Either way the end result was another ‘what might have been’.
With Cowan, Fagan, Kinniburgh all missing it was another creditable performance from the U21s who hopefully will continue to do well this season.
Team: Dubourdeau, Dempsie, Crawley, Black, Sengewald, Mathie, Russell, MacDonald, Jack, Kemas, Clarke (Scott 80)
Subs: Clarkson, Ewings, Quinn, Barkey