GAEL BIGIRIMANA hailed captain Peter Hartley for leading by example against Rangers as he ended a tumultuous week on a high note at Fir Park.

The defender sparked controversy ahead of the Premiership clash with Steven Gerrard’s side with crude comments about the broken nose Fabio Cardoso sustained against the Steelmen last season.

Hartley apologised for his remarks and showed no ill-effects of the storm surrounding him as he turned in a solid performance on Sunday.

His injury-time header earned Stephen Robinson’s side a point as a six-goal thriller ended in dramatic fashion in Lanarkshire.

It was midfielder Bigirimana that provided the cross from a corner for his skipper to nod home in the final stages of an enthralling encounter.

And he was pleased to see Hartley making headlines for all the right reasons by netting his second goal of the campaign.

Bigirmana said: “Motherwell is a team that needs every player to be on the best of their game.

“Obviously, we don’t agree with what he said, but we are just so delighted for him. Now he can put it in the past. He can build from his performance.

“It was just relief because three corners before that they were going wrong. I also got told ‘after this corner the game is over’.

“There was a bit of pressure. I just had to compose myself and make sure that I put it in a dangerous area.

“To be honest, he’s been quiet. He obviously knew that the media was going crazy with what he said. But he has been training hard and focusing.

“He needed to be like that. He had to make sure he didn’t get carried away with everything, get anxious and panic. I thought he played his game and got a goal for us which was fantastic.”

Boss Robinson was left frustrated that Motherwell didn’t take all three points as they finally registered in the Premiership this term.

A double from Kyle Lafferty cancelled out efforts from Danny Johnson and Carl McHugh but it was the hosts that had the final say as Rangers couldn’t hold on after Ovie Ejaria had seemingly clinched the win.

Bigirimana said: “Yeah, if you look at the chances that we had [we should have won it].

“We conceded two goals that we strongly believe we shouldn’t have. They break from our corner.

“The deflection we couldn’t do anything about. We just wanted to get the three points as soon as possible. Luckily today we got the one point and we will take it.

“After the Livingston game we just tried to work hard and stay humble. We knew the run that Rangers were on and knew that there would be occasions when they had the ball.

“We knew we would had to work hard for each other and just stick to the game plan.

“We knew that regardless of whether we go down, whether we are losing, we just have to make sure that we give ourselves a chance to stay in the game and get something out of it.

“You can see that we are good at set pieces. We work hard on them, practice a lot on them and a lot of focus goes into it.

“But we also knew that Rangers have been scoring a lot of their goals from set pieces as well. So it just shows that when you work on something and put your focus on something you get your rewards.”