Ian Baraclough relieved as Motherwell avoid drop in style

Motherwell players celebrated with fans after they secured their Scottish premiership safety

Motherwell manager Ian Baraclough said he was relieved to have avoided a "catastrophic" relegation after beating Rangers 6-1 on aggregate in the Scottish Premiership play-offs.

Goals from Marvin Johnson, Lionel Ainsworth and John Sutton sealed a 3-0 win for the hosts at Fir Park.

"The scoreline speaks for itself," Baraclough told BBC Scotland.

"Rangers were on the up, the momentum was all with them, a lot of Scottish football was with them."

Motherwell went into the game holding a two-goal advantage from the first leg at Ibrox as they looked to extend their stay in the top flight, a run that goes back to 1985.

And, following an ugly brawl and three red cards afterthe final whistle, the Lanarkshire club's players emerged to celebrate with the home support in the 9,220 crowd.

"When you get a result like that you have to enjoy it with the fans because we're all in it together," said Baraclough.

Motherwell's Lionel Ainsworth (centre) scored Motherwell's second

"They've got us over the line and hopefully now we can strengthen in the summer and get ourselves back to some sort of normality when it comes around.

"There's a lot of emotions gone through in the last few weeks and you have to celebrate in some sort of fashion, because it could have been catastrophic for the club to have gone down and had to build ourselves back up from the Championship."

The game was goalless until early in the second half, when a mistake by Rangers goalkeeper Cammy Bell resulted in Johnston's opener.

"The boys were absolutely magnificent," said Baraclough. "We dealt with an onslaught initially then settled into the game and put the chances away when they came."