Preview: Rangers vs. Motherwell - prediction, team news, lineups

At a time when the Glasgow giants are second in the Scottish Premiership standings, Motherwell travel to Ibrox in ninth spot and without a victory in four matches.

Match preview

When Beale recently commenced his Rangers reign, he would have appreciated that getting wins on the board was far more important than performances at this stage.

The former Queens Park Rangers boss has managed to secure his primary objective, posting wins over Hibernian, Aberdeen and Ross County, yet that triple-header would have strengthened the feeling that he has much work ahead.

Each triumph came by a one-goal margin, the second of two 3-2 wins in his opening matches coming courtesy of goals netted in the 95th and 97th minutes respectively.

Last time out, a first-half John Lundstram goal proved to be the difference at Ross County, Rangers recording just their second clean sheet in nine games.

While Celtic remain rampant at the top, Rangers can only stay within nine points, but Beale will be looking at the bigger picture as much as he is on trying to pull off one of the more unlikely title revivals in Scottish footballing history.

From Motherwell's perspective, they will not mind travelling to Ibrox at this stage of Beale's progression at Rangers and having improved in their last two outings.

Although pride was taken from losing 2-1 to Celtic before the World Cup break, Steven Hammell would have been slightly more pleased with the draws which followed versus St Johnstone and Kilmarnock.

That was more the case with the stalemate in the former, Motherwell having come from behind to earn their point, but they gave up a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with a rival in the following fixture.

Despite that frustration, Motherwell were able to move three points clear of the bottom two, and getting this fixture with Rangers out of the way comes at a favourable time with no more league fixtures to come versus either of the top two until the middle of March.

Rangers Scottish Premiership form:

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W

D

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Rangers form (all competitions):

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D

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W

Motherwell Scottish Premiership form:

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W

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D

D

Motherwell form (all competitions):

W

L

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D

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D

Team News

Adam Devine will likely continue at left-back for Rangers as Borna Barisic continues to recuperate after his exertions at the World Cup with Croatia.

Beale will give consideration to selecting an unchanged team, but he acknowledged that tiredness was present in the camp after the win over Ross County.

That could see James Sands, Ryan Jack and Alfredo Morelos all come into contention for starting roles.

Having been left furious with Motherwell's collapse versus Kilmarnock, Hammell must decide whether to hand the same players a chance to redeem themselves.

If an alteration is made, either Dean Cornelius or Ross Tierney may be introduced to add fresh legs in midfield.

Rangers possible starting lineup:

McLaughlin; Tavernier, Goldson, Davies, Devine; Arfield, Lundstram, Kamara; Tillman, Sakala, Kent

Motherwell possible starting lineup:

Kelly; O'Donnell, McGinn, Lamie, Penney; Slattery, Goss, Spittal; Shields, Veen, McKinstry

We say: Rangers 3-1 Motherwell

After three hard-earned wins, no-one should necessarily expect Rangers to run riot against their out-of-form opponents. Nevertheless, we can only back a home win, perhaps by the biggest margin under Beale to date.

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