Graham Alexander says Motherwell were undone by a "world class" finish from Rangers' James Tavernier.
The Ibrox skipper smashed a first-time volley from Joe Aribo's cross into the far corner past Liam Kelly with 'Well leading 1-0 - and that was the spark for Rangers' 6-1 rout over their 10-man hosts.
Tavernier set up Fashion Sakala to score just moments later and leave shell-shocked 'Well trailing at the break. The day only got worse as 'Well skipper Stephen O'Donnell saw red and Rangers fired in four more goals.
While Alexander was full of praise for the quality of the goal that changed the game, he said his side didn't cover themselves in glory after that.
The Motherwell boss said: "The first goal is a world class finish from an angle where we almost hold our hands up and say sometimes it's just pure quality - and it was.
"I do think it was an overhit cross from that side, to be honest, but you can't take anything away from the finish.
"I think the second one is the one we need to deal with better.
"Coming at that time, I don't think we even got a kick before half-time after that goal, so we just had to focus our minds on how well we played for the 42 minutes before that and try and repeat it.
"But we didn't manage to do that."
It inflicted a fourth defeat in five games for the Steelmen and they now head to Pittodrie to face a resurgent Aberdeen on Saturday.
Alexander, though, believes his side have the quality within them to bounce back after defeats to Hearts, Celtic, Dundee United and now Rangers, following a 2-2 draw with St Mirren in midweek.
He added: "We've got to understand the level of opposition we've played in this little run.
"The league is extremely tight. There's a lot of quality from top to bottom, but we have quality in our ranks, so we have to believe in that and we will."
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
