Mischievous Nedim Bajrami adopted a new tactic to run the clock down against Motherwell – and by the time Stuart Kettlewell cottoned on, it was too little, too late.
Bajrami was the toast of the Rangers fans after his deflected winner teed up a return trip to the national stadium, where they will battle Celtic with much more than just the Premier Sports Cup on the line. It was far from vintage from the Ibrox side but they dug in after Andy Halliday’s first half opener, Cyriel Dessers equalising after the break before Bajrami struck on 81 minutes.
That left Philippe Clement‘s team with nine minutes plus stoppage time to see out and Bajrami was up to some game management, we’ll call it, late on. There were a few instances, after Rangers were given throw-ins on the left wing, in which he would immediately demand the ball back from the ball-boy, before palming it away with a wry smile to kill a few seconds.
It happened bang on 90 minutes with Jefte, who would typically take the eventual throw-in, in on the joke by that point. And it wouldn’t be long before Motherwell boss Kettlewell also clocked it. On 95 minutes, the Well manager caught the ball and while his instinct was to get the ball straight back to the Rangers player to restart the game, when he saw it was Bajrami asking for it, he initially hesitated and pointed at him – a gesture that said ‘I know what you’re up to’.
But with no other Rangers player forthcoming, and the clock ticking down, he eventually relented and handed it over. And then Bajrami did exactly what he expected – dropped the ball and left it for Jefte to come and take it. Kettlewell, knowing the final whistle was imminent, could only laugh at the exchange.