Motherwell 1 - 1 Rangers: Rangers on brink of most painful of losses

LOSING the league championship is worse than not winning it. Celtic supporters are qualified to lecture on the subject, having endured the anguish of watching their team forfeit a seemingly insurmountable lead in 2005, culminating in the transfer of the title to Rangers on the last day of the campaign.

Now their great rivals at Ibrox face a similar prospect, this latest faltering at Fir Park having left them three points and seven goals behind, their hopes dependent on Celtic failing to beat Dundee United at Tannadice on Thursday and they themselves winning their last two matches, away to St Mirren tonight and to Aberdeen on Thursday.

If the loss of two points to Motherwell could not be considered the shock of the season – Mark McGhee's side are not only third in the Premier League, but had already damaged both Old Firm clubs during the course of the championship – Rangers' overall wastefulness in the past six weeks could hardly have been predicted.

On 5 April, the day Celtic were beaten 1-0 at home by Motherwell, the Ibrox team's notional advantage – that is, the one based on points conceded, rather than won – stood at 12 points. They were six ahead, having played two matches fewer. Now, that has been eroded to the point of non-existence by their having taken a paltry three points from their past five away matches.

An awareness of the lessons of history, however, is no guarantee of the avoidance of a repeat. Any Celtic fan who prematurely celebrated a third successive championship over the weekend either suffers from an extremely short memory span or an unwholesome presumptuousness.

As Walter Smith, characteristically composed and rational despite the potentially fatal set-back at Motherwell, pointed out, both his own team and Celtic still have difficult obstacles to negotiate.

Smith was responding to the suggestion that United, with nothing to play for, could be less competitive than usual in their final outing. There have even been – inevitable in these circumstances – whispers of conspiracy, born of the theory that United are still simmering over the injustices of their 3-1 defeat at Ibrox nine days ago – when they were victims of Mike McCurry's injudicious refereeing – and in no mood to do Rangers any favours.

"I just won't have that," said Smith. "Too many people still don't seem to understand how competitive the Scottish game is. It's always like this, it's always hard, because every team puts so much into it. Motherwell's efforts today reflect the way it is throughout Scotland. Teams may lack certain qualities – and I include my own in that – but they don't lack a competitive spirit. There will be set-backs and disappointments and we've seen another one for us here today."

The conspiracy theorists also suggested that, in these crucial closing stages, the Celtic and Rangers supporters who play for their rivals would be less than fully committed to the cause. That idea was exposed as nonsense by the events at Fir Park on Saturday.

Keith Lasley, the Motherwell midfielder, was said to have been in Manchester last week, wearing a Rangers top, to support the Ibrox side in the Uefa Cup final. When asked, he rather fudged his reply, saying that "the important thing was that I was wearing a Motherwell top today".

Whether or not he was at the European final, he gave a man-of-the-match performance against Rangers. In addition, his very close challenger for the award was his fellow midfielder, Stephen Hughes, the former Rangers player. These two were more accomplished than any other in controlling the ball on a notoriously uneven and unpredictable playing surface.

Lasley and Hughes excepted, there was nothing between the teams in a match that was almost a reprise of Celtic's visit to the same ground two weeks before. On that occasion, the Parkhead side's 2-1 victory – their winning goal scored from a corner kick erroneously awarded by referee Steve Conroy – merely confirmed that the ball was once again running their way after a particularly unproductive month of March.

Rangers took the lead with a goal that was in the gift of the home goalkeeper, Graeme Smith. His decision to leave his line as a long, hanging forward ball from Kirk Broadfoot dropped just inside the penalty area was fatally flawed. His desertion of his post, without a hope of reaching the ball, allowed Christian Dailly simply to head it past him and into an unprotected net.

Daniel Cousin should have secured the victory for the visitors early in the second half, when some dilatory defending by Mark Reynolds allowed the striker to muscle his way past and leave himself with only Smith to beat. But he drove the ball against the Motherwell goalkeeper's legs.

The home side were level soon after with an untidy goal, Chris Porter squeezing the ball over the line from about three yards out after the Rangers defence had failed to clear after David Clarkson had headed a cross from Hughes on the right against Neil Alexander's left-hand post.

Far from lamenting his luck or claiming any injustice in the scoreline, Smith chose to dwell on his own team's most serious flaw.

"We just lack a bit of composure, that bit of quality that can make the difference," he said. "We have players highly committed and very industrious and I can't praise their efforts this season highly enough. What we have has taken us a long way, but we've seen through the season that we just lack a little bit of class."