Danny Rohl still believes as loss to Motherwell dents Rangers’ title hopes

Danny Rohl insists Rangers will “keep believing” despite suffering a William Hill Premiership title blow with a 3-2 defeat by Motherwell at Ibrox.

First-half goals from Lukas Fadinger and Emmanuel Longelo as Well dominated ensured half-time changes by the Gers boss with Mikey Moore, skipper James Tavernier and Mohamed Diomande coming on in a reshuffle.

Rangers had fought back from two down in their previous game against Falkirk to win 6-3 and another dramatic comeback looked on when Youssef Chermiti reduced the deficit in the 51st minute and midfielder Nico Raskin got the last touch on the leveller.

However, in the final minute of normal time, Longelo’s drive came off the head of Ibrox defender Emmanuel Fernandez and ended up in the back of the net to leave Rangers in third place, one point behind Celtic and four behind leaders Hearts with four fixtures remaining.

Rohl said: “I’m disappointed, there’s no question over that. Let’s talk about the second 45 minutes where we had a lot of opportunities to turn it again.

“We could have won this game 4-2 or 5-2, even if the first half wasn’t what we wanted.

“We changed something and it had a great impact.

“Look, this is football – that’s why sometimes we love the sport and sometimes we hate it.

“But the most important thing is that it’s not over. It’s really not over.

“I saw the picture from our fans at Falkirk, the flag saying ‘Keep Believing’.

“This is the right time to lift this slogan with emotion. Really, we will keep believing. Otherwise, it’s difficult.

“We have four more finals, four games to go and it’s our job.”

Rohl claimed Rangers should have had a penalty in the first half when Djeidi Gassama was fouled by Fadinger on the edge of the box, the free-kick awarded by referee Kevin Clancy coming to nothing.

He said: “I just say, the foul on Gassama is clearly on the line. His foot is inside (the box) but they didn’t look.

“Maybe I’m wrong but please look back and you’ll see I’m right with this.

“But I don’t want to make excuses, we still had enough chances to turn it.

“This is what I take from this game. We can turn things still in the right direction and we can make adjustments with impact players. All of those things give me more than belief that we can do it.”

After two draws and a defeat in the three previous games against Rangers this season, Well boss Jens Berthel Askou was pleased to at last register the win.

He said: “I really think that we could have won all the games against them and I think they will probably say the same because it’s been very tight games where both teams have had their moments and opportunities to take them.

“Finally, we got what we feel we have deserved by giving ourselves four good opportunities to win the games against them.

“It’s not going to be easy and it certainly wasn’t easy today.

“I’m just really happy that the players and the fans and the staff finally get to raise their arms against them at the end of the game.”