DANNY ROHL’S Ibrox side crashed to a 3-2 defeat to Jens Berthel Askou’s Motherwell in Govan this afternoon.
Emmanuel Longelo hammered in his second goal in the 90th minute for the winner after the home side had battled back from two goals down at the interval.
It leaves Rohl’s team on 69 points while the champions sit on 70 with the Hearts result in the Edinburgh derby against Hibs at Easter Road later today still to come.
Following a superbly constructed move on the left, Well took the lead in the 16th minute to silence the crowd.
The visitors cut through the unsuspecting rearguard and Lukas Fadinger took a touch to create space before whipping a low drive wide of the exposed Jack Butland to his left.
BIG NOISE…Lucas Fadinger yells in delight after opening the scoring at Ibrox this afternoon.
And the Fir Park outfit doubled their advantage in the 25th minute after another sweeping move that saw the ball move from left to right before Callum Slattery fired a low cross into the box.
Longelo’s timing as he arrived at the far post was perfect as he came in on the blindside to thunder an unstoppable left-foot effort high into the net with Butland stranded.
Visiting keeper Callum Ward didn’t have a solitary shot to deal with in the first-half in which on-loan Celtic centre-back Stephen Welsh was turning in a command performance.
However, there was a double blow for Well six minutes after the interval when the Govan club pulled one back and Welsh was forced to limp off after sustaining an injury.
DIDN’T HE DO WELL? Emmanuel Longelo fires in Motherwell’s winner at Ibrox.
Youssef Chermiti took advantage of a Paul McGinn slip to fire past Ward at his left-hand post to throw his team a lifeline.
And Nico Raskin bundled in the equaliser in the 70th minute following a left-wing corner-kick. There was a VAR check before Andrew Dallas informed Kevin Clancy the goal would be allowed to stand.
In the 83rd minute, Fadinger had a clear sight at goal, but thumped his drive wildly over the bar much to the relief of Butland and dismay of the travelling fans.
But Longelo had the final say seven minutes later.
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