Russell Martin accused his players of having the wrong mentality after watching his Rangers side being held to a draw when Emmanuel Longelo drove home an 87th-minute equaliser for Motherwell.
“I think we were lucky to get a point,” said the former Southampton manager, who was appointed by Rangers in June. “Motherwell played great, we were nowhere near where we need to be, I’m extremely disappointed and hurt by that.
“I’ve said to the players … there is a default here at this football club, to revert to type,” Martin told Sky Sports. “When it’s going really well, everyone’s all in … when it’s not going well, you protect yourself a little bit, self-preservation.
“You have to be all in, all the time. We had too many on the pitch today who just did what they wanted to do. When you want to just jog around, there’s a big problem. Some of them have to drop their ego. I’ll look at us tactically and accept my responsibility but today wasn’t really tactical, it was a mentality problem. We got more than we deserved today.”
Yet it was Rangers who started brightest, with home goalkeeper Calum Ward palming a 25-yard free-kick from skipper James Tavernier around a post in the fourth minute, and Kieran Dowell heading Joe Rothwell’s corner over the crossbar. Attacker Djeidi Gassama, who started in place of Findlay Curtis in the only change from Wednesday’s draw with Panathinaikos in Athens, curled a shot wide after taking a pass from Brazilian striker Danilo, who then clipped the bar with a shot from 25 yards.
And it seemed all too easy when Tavernier headed in a Rothwell delivery to the back post for his 131st Gers’ goal, after home skipper Paul McGinn had shanked a clearance to concede a corner. But while dangerous in attack, the visitors looked fragile in defence at times and in the 24th minute keeper Jack Butland fumbled an effort from an unmarked Longelo, then blocked the shot on the rebound from striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos.
Both sides were intent on playing out from the back and there were numerous turnovers but little in the way of goalmouth action, until Ward made a save from Gassama’s header two minutes after the interval. Minutes later, Callum Slattery’s whipped-in free-kick, after he had been fouled by Tavernier, found Elijah Just at the back post but he could not control his header.
Motherwell grew in confidence and newmanager, Jens Berthel Askou – a former teammate of Martin at Norwich – saw Butland make a diving save from McGinn’s low drive after the defender had burst into the box, with John Souttar completing the clearance.
Stamatelopoulos headed over from just under the bar and then, with three minutes remaining, Longelo burst into the box and when the ball was cleared, Johnny Koutroumbis returned it into the area, Just chested it back and Longelo drilled it low past Butland for a well-deserved equaliser. And only a fine Butland save in added time from substitute Tom Sparrow prevented a defeat.
In his post-match press conference, Martin continued the criticism of his side’s performance. “Motherwell were really good, credit to them. But I said to the players, the problems haven’t been tactical, yet. They’ve been mentality, about energy, about courage, intensity, aggression, to play.”
“Today, we go ahead and play some OK stuff. Every time we get in the final third, we turn the ball over and make crazy decisions. They’re either selfish decisions or they’re based on anxiety, so we need to get to the bottom of that. Because there was far too much stuff that we haven’t worked on or haven’t seen.
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“It’s not me digging them out,” Martin added. “I take full responsibility for it. But that hurts me more than anything. Too much ego, too much self-preservation, and you’re either all-in all the time or you’re not. And if you’re not, you just won’t play very much.”
The Kilmarnock manager, Stuart Kettlewell, lamented a “really soft” red card for George Stanger as his side let a two-goal lead slip in a 2-2 home draw with promoted Livingston. A double salvo from Djenairo Daniels and David Watson in the closing stages of the first half had put the hosts on course for victory.
Stanger was sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity by tugging the shirt of former Kilmarnock forward Robbie Muirhead, who scored the resulting penalty, before the visitors capitalised on their extra-man advantage when Scott Pittman equalised in the 86th minute.
“I do have complaints about the red card,” said Kettlewell. “From my angle, from the technical area, I actually felt that Muirhead had the initial pull on George. If we deem both pulls the same, then is the foul earlier in the incident?
“But even at that, is George’s contact enough for Muirhead to go down in the fashion that he does? Is it a red card? We’ll all debate it, some will think it is. I probably sit in the camp of it being soft, I feel it’s really, really soft.”
