Paul McGinn insists Motherwell should have done more against an under-par Rangers as he admits the defeat at Ibrox last night has heightened the Steelmen;s relegation worries.
The Fir Park side had their chances to hurt Michael Beale's men but the likes of Connor Shields and Dean Corenlius spurned good early chances.
In the end, Rangers ran out comfortable winners with headers from Alfredo Morelos and Connor Goldson followed by a Malik Tillman strike earning a 3-0 victory ahead of hosting Celtic in Monday's Old Firm derby.
It was Motherwell's 10th defeat of the season and saw them drop to 10th in the Premiership table, just three points ahead of rock bottom Ross County with a game in hand, to end 2022 on a low note.
And McGinn said: "I didn't think there was much in it but it summed us up, we are in games but we give away soft goals.
"I think if a lower league team lost the goals we lost to Rangers you would maybe expect it, but we are a Premiership team and we need to be better. We can't give goals away like that.
"They could have had more late on when the game was done but we were chasing it.
"Connor went through on goal, we maybe could have got something there.
"Sods [Stephen O'Donnell] has put a ball right across goal that was a good chance and Deano's had chances.
"But I thought we got more opportunities than we normally get here.
"I don't think Rangers played particularly well - and I'm sure they will admit that themselves- so it is very frustrating."
Motherwell now face seventh place Livingston on Monday to kick-off the new year and McGinn knows it is a vital game with six points currently between 'Well and the top six.
Asked if his side were becoming embroiled in a relegation battle, he said: "Well, if you look at our form at the moment, that has to be the way we talk right now.
"It's not really fair based on our performances against teams this season, but at the end of the day there is no point being a nice, soft team. You need to start winning games.
"I'm sure the fans would rather we ground out minging wins for a while than play nice football so we need to start winning and hopefully it starts at Livi.
"If we lose that, it starts opening up a gap.
"But we beat them earlier in the season [1-0 in August], so hopefully we go and do that again."
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