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McGhee's men swing title pendulum in Celtic's favour

By Hayley Paterson   Last updated: 17th May 2008

Walter Smith Rangers

Smith: Title up for grabs

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Rangers hopes of a historic treble were damaged after a 1-1 draw away to Motherwell.

The draw leaves Rangers three points behind first-placed Celtic, but still with a game in-hand over their Old Firm rivals.

Elsewhere, Inverness and St Mirren played out a goalless draw, while Kilmarnock defeated Falkirk.

Motherwell 1 Rangers 1

Title-chasing Rangers suffered a setback as they were held to a 1-1 draw away to Motherwell.

The away side failed to capitalise on their first of two games in-hand after Motherwell's Chris Porter equalised in the 50th minute to cancel out a Christian Dailly opener at Fir Park.

Rangers now find themselves three points behind first-placed Celtic, but still with a game in-hand over their Old Firm rivals.

And after their disappointing final failure in the Uefa Cup and missing out on the quadruple, the treble now looks in doubt.

Walter Smith made five changes for Rangers with Mark McGhee making two from the win over Aberdeen which secured them a Uefa Cup spot.

Smith's tactical changes made an immediate impact when the recalled Dailly opened the scoring after he connected with a hopeful ball from Kirk Broadfoot to head the ball over the advancing Graeme Smith in the 29th minute.

Both sides had chances denied when Novo had a goal disallowed for offside and Neil Alexander did well to tip over a well-struck drive from Brian McLean.

Motherwell got their rewards when Chris Porter snatched an equaliser in the 50th minute - breaking the hearts of the 'Gers faithful and putting pressure onto their championship challenge.

The two points lost means that even if Rangers win their last two games, they might still not win the league title - with Celtic now in pole position.

Inverness CT 0 St Mirren 0

Inverness had the better of the chances in the 0-0 draw against St Mirren with both clubs battling it out for ninth spot.

Despite being reduced to ten men after David Proctor received his second bookable offence in the 54th minute, Craig Brewster's striking partnership of Marius Niculae and Dennis Wyness tried to pressure the Kilmarnock back four.

However neither side could find that illusive touch infront of goal with Romanian striker Niculae, who is set for a Euro 2008 role this summer, failing to hit the target and firing over.

Kilmarnock 2 Falkirk 1

Goals from Mehdi Taouil and Paul Di Giacomo claimed the three points for Kilmarnock and cancelled out Pedro Moutinho's earlier strike for Falkirk.

Moroccan midfielder Taouil's first-half equaliser and Di Giacomo's finish in the last ten minutes were enough to see the three points stay in Rugby Park.

Moutinho had earlier put the visitors ahead at Rugby Park when he drilled a 25 yard shot past Killie's Alan Combe.

Seconds before, Paul Dalglish had a glorious chance to score but blazed over from 12 yards, after good work from the impressive David Fernandez.

However Killie had a bit of luck when Taouil's shot was deflected and fooled stand-in 'keeper Robert Olejnik to trickle into the net.

Olejnik was forced to make a good save from Grant Murray's 16-yard drive and Killie defender Simon Ford had to retrieve his own mistake by blocking a goal-bound shot from Bairns wide-man Carl Finnigan.