Mark McGhee's resolute and often inventive team warranted the reward not merely by a playing style based largely on defence, but one which brought them as many opportunities as the Ibrox side to secure victory. The result leaves Walter Smith's team four points in arrears of the leaders and looking less convincing as potential champions than they had earlier in the season.

In a match that rarely allowed the attention to wander, Motherwell spent much of the time breaching common etiquette by ensuring that their visitors were made as uncomfortable as possible. They achieved their objective through a commitment and industry that suggested they were tired of being pushed around by the Old Firm.

Having lost at Celtic Park on Saturday, Mark McGhee's slightly altered side – Steven McGarry in place of the suspended David Clarkson – appeared to ache for retribution against the other half of the Glasgow partnership. Their aggressiveness, especially through the first 30 minutes, had the effect of energising a Rangers team who had been, until the threats arrived in waves, curiously lethargic.

The Ibrox side's retaliation led to a succession of near misses around Graeme Smith in the home goal and a fluctuating contest that would satisfy even the most demanding of spectators. That a fiercely fought first half should end scoreless was attributable largely to some sound defending and goalkeeping.

Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor, for example, had to be down quickly to his right to stop a powerful low drive from Keith Lasley after the Motherwell midfielder had been supplied by Stephen Hughes. The Rangers goalkeeper would be required soon after to prevent John Sutton putting his head to a menacing cross from Paul Quinn on the right as the right-back ended a surging, passing move that also involved Lasley and McGarry.

Through the middle period of that first half, Rangers appeared bemused, like men unaccustomed to being denied their wishes. There would be a certain element of unsettlement through their changes – club captain Barry Ferguson starting a match for the first time since the Scottish Cup final in May and Kyle Lafferty replacing Nacho Novo in the team who won at Kilmarnock on Sunday – but it was not until they felt insulted that they began to impose themselves.

By the time of the interval, they had contrived enough opportunities to have established a potentially decisive advantage, but were frustrated by Smith in the Motherwell goal and by slack finishing of their own. Kris Boyd sent Kenny Miller into the area on a cute lob, but his hesitation allowed Lasley to make the telling tackle.

But when Steven Hammell slipped as he tackled Ferguson and the ball broke back to the Rangers captain, he should have done better from point-blank range than give Smith the chance to save by stretching out his left leg.

The break clearly did nothing to dilute the ambition of either side, but it was Motherwell, pressing insistently in the opening ten minutes of the second half, who should have taken the lead.

When Lasley played the ball in from the left to Hughes, the latter slipped it to Quinn, advancing through the inside-right position. The captain's low through ball to Chris Porter was perfect, not simply for its accuracy, but because it took out all possibility of a challenge, leaving Porter looking only at McGregor. His attempt was poor, the ball clearly rising over the crossbar even before the goalkeeper assisted with the merest touch.

That was a proper opportunity, which arrived just a minute after Rangers had constructed a move that brought Boyd within inches of an unmissable chance. It was Pedro Mendes' perceptive and perfectly measured pass which released Steven Davis down the right and, when his low centre arced across the goalmouth, Boyd's slide and outstretched right foot got him there a fraction of a second too late.

With Rangers encountering difficulties in overcoming a very sound home defence, marshalled by Bob Malcolm at the heart of it, Smith took off the disappointing Lafferty and replaced him with Novo in the 76th minute. But it would be Motherwell who would threaten more scarily within two minutes of the substitution.

Hughes' beautifully struck 25-yard drive was curling high into McGregor's left-hand corner when the goalkeeper, back-tracking, made the leap to make just enough contact to push the ball over the bar.

It was an incident which supported the view that football matches do not necessarily require a regular flow of goals to maintain excitement and interest.

Motherwell: G Smith, Quinn, Malcolm, Reynolds, Hammell, Fitzpatrick, Hughes, Lasley, McGarry, Porter, Sutton. Subs not used: Nielsen, D Smith, Murphy, O'Brien, Meechan, McHugh, Page.

Rangers: McGregor, Broadfoot, Weir, Bougherra, Papac (Whittaker 81), Davis, Mendes, Ferguson, Lafferty (Novo 76), Boyd, Miller. Subs not used: Alexander, Edu, McCulloch, Loy, Shinnie.