Ex-Rangers goalkeeper Cammy Bell has been opening up about that fumble into the back of the net against Motherwell back in May 2015.
The former Kilmarnock stopper misjudged the flight of Marvin Johnson’s shot to hand Motherwell a 1-0 lead on the day and 4-0 lead on aggregate to all but condemn Rangers to another year in the Championship.
And whilst Cammy acknowledges his mistake, the stopper also believes the club were ill-equipped to properly reverse the deficit from the 3-0 first-leg defeat.
“It was a tough time in my career that I had to learn a lot about myself and pick myself up and it was difficult,” said Cammy Bell, talking on the Bhoys v Bluenoses podcast [Episode 13].
“You need to be mentally strong and you need to bounce back from these things. Because it was on a big stage it was difficult to deal with.
“I don’t think we had enough at the time anyways to go and get three goals in that game.
“That’s not shying away from the mistake, I felt as if we kind of run out of steam. Even in the first leg and the games before it.
“It had been a season of turmoil, everything had been changing in the club.
“To be honest, as a Rangers fan myself, I think Rangers needed another season of stability, at boardroom level and managerial level to consolidate themselves and progress.”
Bell’s opinion on Rangers needing more time to build a squad truly capable of earning promotion and competing in the top division is one which is widely held by Rangers supporters.
The match with Motherwell proved to be Bell’s final game for Rangers and whilst the disastrous two-legged promotion tie with the Steelmen is sometimes remembered for Bell’s error, it was certainly not the defining factor.
Rangers didn’t have enough to truly compete at that stage and following the humiliation rebooted things under Mark Warburton.
Now under the guidance of Steven Gerrard, the Ibrox club are the closest they have been since being relegated to properly challenging for the Scottish Premiership title.
