Peter Hartley rubbed salt into Rangers' wounds as the Motherwell captain's last-gasp equaliser rescued a 3-3 draw against the club he was forced to apologise to.

Hartley had said sorry on Thursday after mocking former Rangers defender Fabio Cardoso following the broken nose he suffered in a tussle with Motherwell's Ryan Bowman last term.

But Motherwell defender Hartley went from villain to hero for the hosts at Fir Park.

Rangers found themselves behind for the first time under boss Steven Gerrard as Danny Johnson opened the scoring early.

They fought back twice with goals from Kyle Lafferty after Carl McHugh had also struck for the hosts.

It looked like Ovie Ejaria's goal just before the break would send Rangers on their 4,600-mile Europa League round trip to Ufa on Thursday in confident mood, only for Hartley to pounce with the last kick of the game.

Gerrard took the chance to road-test a 3-5-2 formation as Jon Flanagan joined Connor Goldson and Nikola Katic in a new-look three-man back line.

But it took just three minutes for Johnson to net for Motherwell.

Goldson slipped on the greasy surface and Allan McGregor's footing also went, leaving Johnson to lob over the stranded goalkeeper into an empty net.

Rangers levelled on 16 minutes as Hartley could only clear a Barisic cross to the edge of the box, where the Northern Irish striker was lurking to slam home with the aid of a big deflection off Richard Tait.

Yet Rangers were behind again within two minutes as Gael Bigirimana lined-up a free-kick from deep, leaving McHugh to loop a header over McGregor.

Rangers hit back again on 38 minutes when Tom Aldred did not spot Lafferty cutting across him and was powerless to stop the big frontman nodding home.

Gerrard's men took the lead two minutes before half-time when Carson allowed Ejaria's strike to dribble into the net.

But the visitors were less dynamic after half-time and paid the price in the fourth minute of stoppage-time when Hartley lashed home from Bigirimana's delivery.