MARK McGHEE is set to make changes to his Motherwell side against Rangers on Wednesday night - despite seeing them come close to getting a result against Celtic.

McGhee, whose team is still clear in third place in the SPL table, is keen to keep his players fresh for the remaining games of the 2007/08 campaign.

They are in a strong position in the race for a Uefa Cup spot and still have two games in hand on challengers Dundee United, Hibs and Aberdeen.

And McGhee will bring back Simon Lappin, Ross McCormack and Stephen Hughes, who were all relegated to the bench against the Hoops on Saturday, for the difficult midweek trip to Ibrox.

He explained: "I have told all the players who were left out of the starting line-up against Celtic on Saturday that they would be returning against Rangers.

"Really, the game against Aberdeen at Fir Park this weekend is the important one for us. So McCormack, Lappin and Hughes will all come back.

"We went with a side against Celtic that we felt suited the conditions and the way that we wanted to play. But we will change that against Rangers.

"The games against Aberdeen and Hibs are the important ones.

"I always said if we can take anything from the matches against Celtic and Rangers then it will be a bonus."

McGhee could, though, keep faith with West Brom loan keeper Luke Daniels who made his Motherwell debut against the Hoops at the weekend.

Regular Well stopper Graeme Smith was relegated to the bench after some poor performances and the manager was impressed with his replacement.

He confirmed: "Graeme was fit. I felt that Luke showed his inexperience at times, but overall I thought he did well enough.

"He kicked well and got the ball in behind them a couple of times."

McGhee refused to blame referee Steve Conroy, who wrongly awarded Celtic the corner which led to the winning goal, for the narrow defeat.

He argued: "I think we weren't helped by one or two refereeing decisions.

"It was a massive decision for us because we know it's our Achilles heel, so we want to avoid corners.

"I could clearly see it was a goal kick from where I was.

"I thought it was a really, really poor decision that put us under pressure and ultimately led to the winning goal."

"He got small decisions wrong, but ultimately it was our poor defending which cost us the game. We have to look at ourselves."