Rangers made it three Scottish Premiership wins in a row as Ryan Naderi pounced on a mistake by Motherwell goalkeeper Alex Paulsen to score the only goal of the game at Ibrox.

After losing captain Lawrence Shankland with barely five minutes on the clock with what looked like a hamstring problem, the home side were gifted the opening goal.

Looking to play out from the back, Paulsen delayed far too long on the ball and was robbed by Naderi, who was able to tap home into an empty net.

Rangers had an opportunity to double their lead when Tom Sparrow was adjudged to have fouled Djeidi Gassama in the box, but Kim Min-su dragged his spot-kick horribly wide.

Paulsen bounced back from his earlier blunder to make an excellent save to keep out Gassama's close-range header.

And the Motherwell keeper was called into action again to deny Kim before Naderi's effort from the rebound came back off a post.

Substitutes Daisuke Yokota and Kevin Kelsy - on his debut - passed up big chances as Rangers piled on the pressure looking for a second, but ultimately one goal was enough to secure the three points.

After a difficult start to life as Rangers manager, picking up wins - however they come - has been the name of the game for Derek McInnes. This third straight league victory gives the manager something to build on.

His team remains a work in progress after a high turnover of players in the summer.

But one of those recruits, Dan Neil, looks more at home in the Rangers midfield after a patchy start to his spell. Against Motherwell he was a calming, creative presence in the middle of the park.

Gassama was lively throughout and, on another day, might have grabbed a goal, though his insistence on always cutting back onto his right foot means he is often guilty of heading back into traffic rather than attacking the space.

The attacking intent from Rangers was certainly a step up from their early-season struggles, and they took a firmer grip on the game after the break, but they will need to find a sharper edge in the final third.

With Shankland's availability for the coming weeks uncertain at this stage, McInnes will hope that Kelsy can get up to speed quickly.

While it was far from a vintage Motherwell performance, there were some bright spots.

Joseph Hodge was knitting everything together with clever movement and passing as the visitors knocked it around impressively in the first half. Alex Lowry also showed flashes of his quality.

But for all Motherwell's good work building from back to front, too much of their play faltered once they hit the final third.

The bravery to play out from the back is now part of their DNA, but it was their undoing when Paulsen blundered for the goal, and Jake Girdwood-Reich almost gifted Yokota a second goal with another dreadful individual error.

A soft goal conceded and the failure to really threaten as an attacking force after the break meant Motherwell probably got what they deserved.

Rangers manager Derek McInnes: "We'd have taken any sort of win because we're up against a good team, in form, but I really enjoyed how many chances we created.

"We kept Motherwell really at arm's length. They're a team who normally get a lot of plaudits for their creativity.

"We we did both sides of the game really well, what we didn't do is just put the game to bed in terms of getting that second goal. It could've been a far bigger scoreline."

Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson: "They were better than us and deserved the three points. If you want to come to Ibrox and get a result, you need to perform at your best and we need to learn from that.

"The main reason for the result today is two things - we have a very, very, very, very good keeper that keeps the scored down today, that's one; the second is that we don't play up to our best today.

"The fact that it's only 1-0, is thanks to Alex Paulsen. It doesn't matter if you're a keeper, centre-back, full-back six, 10 winger or nine, you're going to make mistakes because it's not easy to play in that way always."