Rangers shrugged off the loss of Leon Balogun to a first-half red card to close the gap on Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 3-1 win at Motherwell.

Liam Kelly’s own goal put the visitors in front at Fir Park before Balogun lunged into a challenge on Dean Cornelius and was shown a straight red card.

Ross Tierney headed home an equaliser before half-time to leave Rangers’ title hopes hanging by a thread.

But the 10-men were far the better side after the break as Scott Wright restored their lead before James Tavernier’s penalty secured the three points.

Victory was all the more impressive as Giovanni Van Bronckhorst made eight changes to the side that beat Celtic to reach the Scottish Cup final last weekend with one eye on Thursday’s Europa League semi-final trip to Leipzig.

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