If Rangers manager Philippe Clement didn’t realize the strength he had heading into the League Cup semi-final against Motherwell, he did so at half-time.
The boos from the Rangers fans at Hampden were raucous as they lost a feature after a first-half spectacle that started brightly but fizzled out after Andy Halliday scored Jack Butland’s goal.
You could argue that a defeat would have spelled the end for Clement, whose team ran through Celtic and Aberdeen in nine editions in just 10 Premiership games.
It used to be an interlude during which truths had to be told and mistakes corrected.
“We started the game well and I felt some nervousness, some doubts at half-time because we conceded the goal,” Clement mentioned after the game.
“We talked about what went well and increasing our pace and our level in the second half to break the wall. That’s what they did.”
Goalkeeper Butland, who took the captain’s armband after being replaced by James Tavernier, was keen to worry about the collective nature of the half-time report.
“A lot of people spoke,” he mentioned. “There is a real desire to change things and make them better.
“At this club we won’t give up. We want to make sure we push standards and make sure that when we have disappointments we jump again.”
They recovered after the break, when Cyriel Dessers equalized in the 49th minute and gave Rangers momentum before Nedim Bajrami scored the winning goal.
They dominated possession, pinned Motherwell down and would have scored more if it weren’t for goalkeeper Aston Oxborough.
“Let’s give Clement a bit of petty credit,” former Scotland winger Pat Nevin said on Sportsound.
“Not everything was going well in the first half. The executive had to have said something, because it seemed that they thought more that the crash was coming.”
