The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Kane in isolation as Saints crash at Ibrox
St Johnstone have been dealt the “bitter blow” of losing Chris Kane after the Perth striker was forced to isolate for 10 days as a result of a recent change in coronavirus rules.
Kane was absent for the 2-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox last night and will now be sidelined for the Perth side’s trip to Motherwell and the visit of Ross County.
With the Omicron variant sweeping across the country, manager Callum Davidson fears this may be the start of a wave of players being forced to stay house-bound over the festive period.
“These new rules just came in on Friday and I end up losing my main striker for 10 days,” said Davidson.
“First and foremost I do hope the family member is safe and well, most importantly.
“But it’s a bitter blow, a real hard one to take, that we are going to lose Chris for these important games coming up.
“I’ve got kids and my wife works. A lot of our wives work and we’re all at risk.
“I’ve lost a member of staff in similar circumstances. It won’t just be St Johnstone that is affected.”
Davidson added: “I am going to get one or two back and lose one or two quickly again.
“I thought Stevie May was going to be out longer, so it was a bonus there.
“I thought he was excellent when he came on tonight, his work-rate and energy was really good and he caused a threat. So we have got him there and we have got a lot of positives.”
Eetu Vertainen was substituted at half-time after Saints conceded the opening goal just before the break.
The Finn had lost possession, resulting in Rangers winning a corner from which Alfredo Morelos scored.
“I thought it was a hard game for us,” said Davidson.
“One team held the ball up well and linked play. For me that was the most disappointing thing.
“In the 42nd minute we were trying to flick balls round corners when it was important we stayed in the game.
“This is a tough place to come. “We could have seen it through to half-time and that basically cost us the game because we were trying to chase it after that.
“Morelos was superb. When the ball came to him he linked it and played a safe pass. Really good forward play.
“I want more from my strikers, especially when you come to
Ibrox. If somebody takes the ball off you by fighting and scrapping I’ll accept it but not flicks round the corner with two minutes to go until half-time.
“We lost our shape a bit at the start of the second half and it was game over. What I would say is they kept going, kept fighting and never stopped.
“There were some positive performances.
“Jacob Butterfield hasn’t played for six months. I was really pleased to get him minutes – probably more than I thought. Reece Devine was excellent down the left and Viv (Solomon-otabor) did well when he came on.”
That top beat bottom at Ibrox was no surprise. And that top beat bottom pretty convincingly wasn’t either.
Rangers are a side that looks to be hitting top gear under their new manager, while St Johnstone are still struggling to find any sort of end of year rhythm.
It’s five defeats in a row – the worst run of losses in Callum Davidson’s time as manager.
Form will have to be found in what remains of the festive programme if Saints are to arrive at the mid-season break without being cut adrift at the foot of the Premiership table.
Goals from Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent secured the victory for Rangers, still 100% in the league under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
They were scored either side of half-time and it was a case of a clinical job done.
For Saints, the same big question remains. Where are the goals going to come from?
There are five fixtures left before help on that front can be found in the January transfer window.
Some points will be needed from those before the cavalry arrives.
It was maybe a surprise to see that the visitors were the team with multiple changes from the weekend and not the hosts.
For Saints, Craig Bryson, Callum Booth, Chris Kane and Glenn Middleton all dropped out, with Jacob Butterfield (his debut), Reece Devine, Eetu Vertainen and Michael O’halloran replacing them.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst made a solitary alteration to his starting line-up – Ianis Hagi for Fashion Sakala.
Rangers have been fast starters under the Dutchman and they applied early pressure here too.
Twice Shaun Rooney failed to get close enough to Kent and twice the forward was able to cut inside and get a shot away, with the second of those nearly finding the net.
It was shaping up to be a long night for the Saints wing-back as Kent fired in another effort – this time kept out by Zander Clark with his boot at the near post – before we’d even reached 15 minutes.
Opportunities for the Perth side to break were scarce in the opening stages but one presented itself for Vertainen.
As he was driving forward his best option would have been to release Rooney, who had charged down the right but the Finn went left and his pass to Ali Crawford was cut out.
Heroic defending was going to have to be a recurring theme for Saints and there were two examples of it midway through the half – Rooney sensing danger to deny Kent a tap-in from a Joe Aribo cross and James Brown with a last ditch sliding tackle on Morelos.
The good rearguard work was undone a couple of minutes before half-time, though.
Davidson wasn’t best pleased that Vertainen tried a flick rather than holding the ball up on the half-way line, Rangers forced a corner from regaining possession and the marking was terrible to allow Morelos a free header at the back post when Connor Goldson helped the set-piece on.
The Mcdiarmid Park boss took Vertainen off at half-time and replaced him with Stevie May.
Five minutes after the re-start it was 2-0 and effectively game over.
Morelos had the freedom of the right side of the pitch and Kent had nearly as much space in the box when the ball came in for him to slot a low shot past Clark.
With Rangers looking in the mood to make significant improvements to their goal difference, damage limitation was the priority for Saints.
To their credit they carved out a couple of decent chances of their own just after the hour.
First Devine dragged a shot just wide after taking down a Liam Craig cross-field pass and then Jamie Mccart missed the target with a back post header a couple of minutes later.
On 72 minutes Rangers coughed up the ball on the edge of their own penalty area and Craig accepted the gift, carrying the ball into the box.
Just as he was about to shoot he went down and, rather than award a penalty, referee Euan Anderson booked the veteran midfielder for diving.
Rangers then suffered a blow when Barisic pulled up with a muscle injury, with Nathan Patterson replacing the left-back.
Scott Arfield and Hagi had efforts saved and Morelos missed Rangers’ best chance for a third with a weak attempt at a lob.
Saints didn’t get any more chances to set up an unlikely comeback and they now move on to Motherwell in search of precious points.