Pedro Caixinha paid tribute to Graham Dorrans after the midfielder’s double on his Rangers debut gave them a winning start to the season. However, the manager warned Josh Windass to improve his defensive work after a near disastrous error at Fir Park.

Dorrans made a dream start playing for his boyhood club and Caixinha said: “I am really happy for him. At 29 years old he is playing for his lifetime club. He is really a Rangers supporter and is really passionate about the club, so I’m really happy that his debut could give us the two goals that lead us to take three points back home.”

The win eased the pressure on Caixinha after Rangers’ Europa League humiliation against Progrès Niederkorn of Luxembouurg last month. And there were plenty of plus points for the Portuguese manager to take from the game, including the display of his other debutant, Bruno Alves, and the lively forays down the left by Windass.

However, Caixinha said the midfielder – who hit the woodwork twice during a thrilling first half – must realise his work does not only involve going forward.

“Normally people only see the game on the brighter side. Did you see who didn’t get on the wall when we conceded the equaliser? Did you see who lost the ball in the second half and we almost got caught on transition?

“Josh is a player who needs to have more confidence – and they all have that – but he needs to learn with the process. It is not only about the bright things. You have to be switched on all the time.”

Dorrans swept Rangers ahead in the fourth minute after a cross from Alves was headed down by Kenny Miller. Ben Heneghan then equalised for Motherwell five minutes before half-time when Windass allowed Craig Tanner to deliver the ball from the right. Rangers regained control after the break and clinched the points when Louis Moult conceded a penalty by barging an elbow into Fábio Cardoso, and Dorrans scored again from the spot.

“Winning was the only goal coming here and the boys did it so I need to be happy with that,” Caixinha said. “Now we have just 37 more finals. It’s about winning. We need to focus on the result.

“Sometimes we need to be humble and understand what the game needs for us to get the result and that’s what we did. I’m focusing on the key areas we need to improve.”

Motherwell felt that they should have had a first-half penalty when the ball appeared to strike Lee Hodson’s hand, and their manager, Stephen Robinson, was left frustrated that his side ended the game with nothing to show for it. “If you don’t take your chances you don’t win football matches and we created a lot of clearcut chances. Ryan Bowman and Alex Fisher had two chances they would put away in their sleep. You will get punished by top teams.

“We dominated large parts of the game. Once the lads settled in and got a bit of belief, we took the game to them. We potentially could have had a penalty ourselves and we’ve lost goals from two set-plays.

“I haven’t seen their penalty again. I was far away from it. Louis said it wasn’t a penalty, that he went to challenge for the ball and the lad’s gone down, but we should have taken care of the game ourselves – without blaming anyone else.”