Flashback Penalties aplenty in Rangers win
In today’s Flashback, we return to a dramatic clash with Rangers in April 2012 ahead of St Mirren’s trip to Ibrox on Saturday.
St Mirren had a man sent off and gave away three penalties as they went down to a 3-1 loss at Ibrox.
The Buddies travelled to Govan looking to put in a strong performance against Ally McCoist’s side but found themselves a goal behind just one minute into the match.
Lee McCulloch nodded in Steven Davis’ pinpoint free-kick to open the scoring.
That was one of Davis’ only contributions as he picked up an injury, being replaced by Rhys McCabe.
On an afternoon dominated by spot kicks, the first came after Rangers’ Maurice Edu was caught by Steven Thomson. Referee Willie Collum had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
But Sone Aluko’s shot hit the outside of the post before rebounding harmlessly to safety.
Aluko then had an effort thwarted by Conor Samson in open play, but Andy Little did eventually beat the keeper shortly after.
His powerful left-foot shot sailed into the bottom corner after a pass deflected straight into his path.
It wasn’t all going Rangers way, with goalkeeper Allan McGregor called into action to make superb saves from efforts by Buddies Dougie Imrie and Nigel Hasselbaink before the break.
And Danny Lennon’s men halved the deficit after Dorin Goian foolishly brought down Saints striker Thompson in the box.
Paul McGowan showed great mental strength to send McGregor the wrong way from the spot with 49 minutes on the clock.
Having just scored a penalty, Saints conceded another as Jereon Tesselaar was deemed by Collum to have denied Aluko a goalscoring opportunity.
He was swiftly red-carded, leaving the visitors with an absolute mountain to climb.
However, McCulloch’s spot-kick was saved superbly by Samson who kept his side in the match.
Unfortunately for the Saints Rangers finally converted a penalty after Collum penalised Lee Mair for a late challenge on McCulloch.
Kyle Lafferty, on as a substitute, followed McGowan’s lead to slide in a similarly cool finish.
McCulloch almost put the gloss on the scoreline late on, but Samson stood up strongly to block the powerful shot.