Rangers face being locked out of the Scottish Premiership for another 12 months after Motherwell grabbed a shock 3-1 first-leg lead in their Scottish Premiership play-off final.
The Light Blues are desperate to fight their way back to the top division after three years in the lower-league wilderness.
But it is Ian Baraclough's team who now look set to preserve their 30-year top-flight run after goals from Stephen McManus and Lionel Ainsworth put daylight between the teams after Rangers defender Darren McGregor had earlier deflected Lee Erwin's shot into his own net.
McGregor did pull one back for the hosts late on but they face a huge task if they are to rescue their promotion bid in Sunday's Fir Park return.
Baraclough only took over the Lanarkshire outfit last December - a month after current Gers boss Stuart McCall walked away from the Well job with the side second bottom of the table.
McCall admitted facing his old side in the relegation decider was a "nightmare scenario" but there is little chance he thought it would end up this bad.
He even ditched the cautious approach and three-man defence which saw them through their semi-final second leg at Hibernian as skipper Lee McCulloch was benched.
Striker Nicky Clark - a scorer in their opening win over the Leith side last Wednesday - was recalled to face a Well side refreshed after Baraclough refused to risk the majority of his regulars in their final league game of the season against Partick last week.
He brought back nine players, with Louis Laing and Ainsworth the only men to keep their places.
The match cast the top flight's second worse side against a Gers team that could only limp home in third in the second tier despite having the second biggest budget in Scotland.
But Rangers looked like they were ready to assume their traditional dominant role as they went at their opponents straight from kick-off.
Marius Zaliukas came close with a header early on, while Kenny Miller danced past both Stephen Pearson and Keith Lasley before curling a shot wide just as the Ibrox faithful rose to their feet in expectation.
A mix-up between Lasley and McManus handed the hosts another opening but George Long beat away Nicky Law's shot.
The Gers surge produced an ear-splitting roar as the Ibrox faithful demanded the opener - but when it went to Motherwell after 27 minutes the home support fell silent.
Zaliukas first allowed Josh Law - Nicky's brother - to find Erwin before letting the striker skip by to shoot. His strike was heading into Cammy Bell's arms but McGregor committed a cardinal sin as he stuck a leg out, diverting the ball into the net.
Ibrox was shocked. The hosts were still frozen in disbelief as Erwin came close again with a header seconds later.
Rangers tried their best to regain their composure and would have had a leveller had Long not denied Clark an instant after pushing away McGregor's header.
But once more the bite disappeared from Rangers' bark as Zaliukas and Lee Wallace both failed to climb with McManus as he got on the end of Marvin Johnson's free-kick delivery to nod in the second five minutes before the break.
Bad went to much, much worse two minutes after the restart as Richard Foster's misplaced pass allowed Pearson to break forward. He found Erwin, who then slotted in Ainsworth to bury the third with a low finish under Bell.
McCall rolled the dice as the replaced Clark and Dean Shiels with striker Kris Boyd and young winger Tom Walsh, while on-loan Newcastle youth Shane Ferguson was also thrown on for his Rangers debut four months after arriving from St James' Park.
Scott McDonald should have put the tie to bed completely with 24 minutes left, but instead blazed over, while Long denied the increasingly-desperate Gers again as he reacted with a reflex save to keep out a Boyd header.
But with nine minutes left, McGregor did find a way past the Well custodian as he powered home a header from Law's corner to give his side a faint glimpse of hope.
They almost had more than that late on as Boyd slammed home from Andrew Murdoch's pass, but the 31-year-old was offside.
Source: PA
