Saints turn on the style to record a historic win in Glasgow
First Ibrox league triumph since 1971 for Perth side
Graham Cummins scored Saints’third to round off the win They say lightning never strikes twice but St Johnstone’s Blair Alston would perhaps disagree.
The McDiarmid Park midfielder unleashed another thunderbolt at Ibrox to set the ball rolling in Saturday’s stunning and historic win against Rangers.
Turn back the clock to October last year and Alston was celebrating after netting from a similar position but, on that occasion, three points alluded the Perth men.
This time round, travelling supporters were sent home with a spring in their step as Saints recorded a first league win at the Glasgow venue since 1971.
Alston’s 10th minute strike had levelled the contest after an early Alfredo Morelos goal before Denny Johnstone and Graham Cummins sealed victory in the second half.
“Sometimes you have teams who you just do well against,” a beaming Alston told the Perthshire Advertiser. “I can’t really describe why that is.
“The ball has dropped for me nicely and I’ve managed to hit it well. It was pretty similar to the game last season when we drew 1-1 but thankfully we got the win this time.
“I’m going back to the clichés again but you don’t mind if you don’t score, as long as you get the win.
“But when I saw Stefan Scougall score against Hamilton I thought that I need to start chipping in. Hopefully it is not a one off for me and there will be more to come.
“We’ve been a little bit hot and cold recently and we knew coming to Ibrox was always going to be difficult. We scored three very good goals so as a team we are delighted.
“We limited Rangers to very little. That is very pleasing considering the way we have been losing goals throughout the season.
“We are quite happy with teams having
Rangers ........................ 1 St Johnstone ................. 3
the ball a lot of the time.
“We let them have the ball in deep areas and then pressed when they came into areas that can hurt us.
“Rangers had a lot of the ball but didn’t create too many clear cut chances. Our defenders defended well, the midfield put in a shift and the guys up top were excellent.
“Overall the manager will be happy because it was a good performance and a much needed three points.”
The form book would suggest that Saints were in for a tough day but within one minute of start-up there was a realisation that Tommy Wright had his players up for it.
Johnstone, on loan from Colchester United, was inches from opening the scoring after out-jumping home keeper Wes Foderingham to nod inches wide of the mark.
The powerful forward’s influence would come to the forefront of this game’s narrative as the afternoon progressed.
But it was Rangers who nudged into a fifth minute lead as Ryan Jack stormed deep into Perth territory before laying into the path of Colombian Morelos.
He set himself and then angled a strike across a full-stretched Zander Clark who could only watch as the ball nestled in the corner of his net.
The early goal lifted the large home support but it wasn’t long before they were stunned into silence. Five more minutes to be precise. It was the powerful left-footed strike of Alston from the edge of the box which thundered into the back of the net to provide the perfect Perth response.