Motherwell showed fighting spirit but would ultimately suffer defeat to Rangers in a tough SWPL1 encounter on Wednesday.
Brianna Westrup fired the hosts in front midway through the first half at the Rangers Training Centre, before Rachel McLaughlin added a second on the stroke of half-time with a clinical finish.
Zoe Ness prodded home a third from close range minutes later to give the hosts a comfortable advantage at half-time. Then, in the second half, Kayla McCoy added a fourth, before Lizzie Arnot struck late on to seal a 5-0 defeat for Motherwell.
The hosts came close to the opener early on with Khym Ramsay performing heroics in the Motherwell goal.
Nicola Docherty’s floated corner fell kindly to Kirsten Reilly at the edge of the box, who set herself before drilling her effort across the face of goal. But Ramsay reacted quickly to parry her strike wide of the post.
Rangers would break the deadlock after 22 minutes. Docherty’s deep cross found Westrup unmarked in the box, and the defender’s perfectly timed volley sailed over the head of Ramsay into the back of the net.
The hosts doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time. Chelsea Cornet’s incisive pass sliced through the Motherwell defence leaving McLaughlin in space, and the forward maintained her composure to coolly slot her strike past Ramsay into the bottom right corner.
Rangers continued to threaten the Motherwell goal and added a third in quick succession. The visitors failed to clear McLaughlin’s floated delivery and Ness calmly placed her strike past Ramsay into the bottom corner from a few yards out.
With the women of steel chasing the game in the second half, Paul Brownlie’s side thought they should’ve been awarded a penalty after Carla Boyce’s effort appeared to strike the hand of Demi Vance.
However, the referee looked disinterested and waved play on despite the adamant pleas of the Motherwell players.
The hosts continued to press and added a fourth in the dying stages of the game.
Rangers skilfully broke through the Motherwell backline with a quick counter attack, and Cornet’s low-driven effort was unfortunately deflected past Ramsay into the bottom corner by the outstretching McCoy.
Rangers sealed all three points in the final minute with a fifth goal. Brogan Hay’s perfectly weighted through ball left Arnot one-on-one with the keeper, and the striker calmly placed her strike nto the bottom right corner to settle the tie.
Despite the scoreline, Motherwell will have plenty of positives to take into this weekend’s encounter with Aberdeen at Alliance Park after a spirited display.
