Giovanni van Bronckhorst ‘very proud’ of 10-man Rangers following Motherwell win

Giovanni van Bronckhorst praised his Rangers side for adapting to Leon Balogun’s first-half red card to beat Motherwell 3-1 at Fir Park.

The much-changed visitors took the lead after 14 minutes although it was unclear whether home keeper Liam Kelly had handled into his own net from a Connor Goldson header or if Gers midfielder Scott Wright got the last touch.

However, Balogun was shown a straight red card in the 29th minute for a heavy tackle on Dean Cornelius,  with defender Calvin Bassey immediately replacing attacker Amad Diallo, and it looked like momentum was  going Motherwell’s way when Ross Tierney levelled with a 35th-minute header.

But Rangers started the second half strongly and there was no doubt that it was Wright who drove in their second goal two minutes after the restart to restore their lead.

Skipper James Tavernier then slotted home a penalty just after the hour mark to take the Light Blues three points behind leaders Celtic, who play at Ross County on Sunday.

Gers boss Van Bronckhorst said: “I am very proud. We started the game well, made it 1-0 and after that we controlled the game well.

“The red card changed the momentum for us, we had to adjust our game plan but I think it worked out well, especially when we have a lot of speed up front.

“Defensively we didn’t give anything away, especially in the second half.

“So I am really proud of our players because we had to dig deep but at the end we were really happy with the win.”

On Balogun’s sending off, the Dutchman said: “It is a tackle from Leon, he wanted to win the tackle but the margin is little and the ref decided to give the red card and we have to respect that and move on and make sure we had the focus on the minutes we had to play after that.

“We