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Paul Thomson

Judging Rangers on Liverpool result "not fair", says Motherwell's Liam Kelly as he warns Steelmen must be at their best to get result

Liam Kelly has warned Motherwell must be at their best to get something off a wounded Rangers side in today's lunchtime Premiership clash.

The Steelmen host Gio van Bronckhorst's side just four days after they were thrashed 7-1 at home to Liverpool in the Champions League, equaling the club's worst-ever result in their history.

Fir Park skipper Kelly, who started his career at Ibrox, knows they will need to be wary of a backlash, but also feels they have what it takes to get their first win at home over Rangers in more than 20 years.

Asked if it was a good time to play Rangers, Kelly said: "We saw with Ross County... we got a good result against them [5-0] but then they went and got a good result against Livingston [1-0] so I feel you always get a good reaction after a negative result.

"We are expecting one of the toughest games of the season.

"I don't think it is fair for us to be judging them against Liverpool, to be honest.

"We are always confident in the group of players we've got that we can get a result against anyone.

"But we are not a naive group and think it will be an easy game. They've got some unbelievable players in their team who will be playing on Sunday.

"But we've got faith in the players we've got, we've got trust in the plan the manager will put in place for us and it's a game we will definitely try and win.

"In a game like this we need to understand that if we are not at our absolute best, we are going to struggle.

"We need to be well organised because Rangers are going to have long periods on the ball but we will have a go.

"The manager always wants us to have a go. Whether that be press high, sit off them, the play will be what it is.

"These are the games you are in the league for and we are hoping to have a lot of our fans there so hopefully we can win that first game at home in over 20 years.

(SNS Group)

I'm really looking forward to it. These are the games you look forward to.

"It's a game we will be really well prepared for and it's one of the toughest games we can get.

"We are playing the way we play because we believe that gives us the best chance of winning so, come Sunday, there's no point in changing that."

Motherwell did draw twice with Rangers at Ibrox last season, recording 1-1 and 2-2 results in Govan under former boss Graham Alexander.

Kelly added: ""We got two fantastic results at Ibrox last season but we also saw that when we are not at our best, they will hurt you.

"We have a different manager now and a different way of playing so we believe that will give us a great chance in the game. Whether that will be enough we will see on Sunday."

The Steelmen go into the clash looking to return to winning ways following a 1-0 defeat at Hibernian last weekend and a battling 2-1 loss away to Celtic.

And Kelly says his side will take a lot of belief from giving the league leaders a good run for their money at Celtic Park.

He said: "We did give a right good account of ourselves but the manager thought we could have played a lot better at Celtic Park as well.

“We were really unhappy after the game, there wasn’t any sense of satisfaction after we lost that game. We were all really disappointed and the manager made that clear to us after the game.

“We are desperate to win on Sunday and there is no point doing all right and getting beat.

"Celtic Park gave us confidence that we can get close [to the top teams], but ultimately you don’t want to get close, you want to take something from the game and that will be the message on Sunday.”

Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.

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