Former Celt Stephen McManus led the route as Motherwell trashed Sevco 3-1 at Ibrox to virtually ensure their place in next season’s Premiership.
Leading 1-0 thanks to an own goal from Dazza McGregor McManus stunned Ibrox into a bout of booing by heading Motherwell two goals ahead in the 40th minute.
While the bulk of the sell-out crowd couldn’t believe what they were witnessing the 950 visiting fans were delirious with joy as their favourites moved into the driving seat.
Buoyed by aggregate wins over Queen of the South and Hibs the home side were strong favourites to progress against a Motherwell side that won just 10 out of 38 Premiership fixtures.
Looking ahead to the match Sevco chief Stuart McCall said: “I think it has been a fortress of late if I’m honest. I think that we beat Hibs and we beat Hearts and we came back from two down against Falkirk and got through against Queen of the South.
“It’s a togetherness and I think that the players need a hand sometimes when it’s a bit edgy and tense and likewise the players need to go out there and do something.
“We did that at the Hearts game. The players were outstanding for the first half and when we went down to ten men, it was the fans who carried the players through and likewise at Easter Road against Sunday.
“You could see that they started well, but for the second half, even though there were only 1500 was Rangers supporters and that carried on the lads.
“When you are a player, what you want to do is obviously you want to make it as a professional but you want to play at the top level and playing at the top level you are playing in front of the biggest attendances.
“It’s no difference being a coach or a manager, so for me to walk out there tomorrow night with a full house is beyond my wildest dreams.”
After an evenly contested start Motherwell took the lead in the 27th minute when Lee Erwin turned Marius Zaliukas inside out then celebrated as McGregor blootered the strikers cross past a dazzled Cameron Bell.
From that moment on the gulf between the two teams was obvious to all as Motherwell pinged the ball around with confidence while their lower division opponents struggled to put two passes together.
The excitement of the journey from bottom tier to top division virtually evaporated when McManus headed powerfully past Bell from a marvelous Marvin Johnston free kick.
Any hopes of a comeback from last season’s runaway League One winners was killed off 90 seconds into the second period when Lionel Ainsworth finished off a great counter attack started by Stephen Pearson.
With nine minutes left to play McGregor scored a consolation for Sevco.
With the return leg at Fir Park on Sunday it will take an incredible collapse to deny Motherwell another season in the top flight leaving Sevco to scrap for promotion against Hibs, St Mirren, Queen of the South and Alloa Athletic.