The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Saints boss rues slack defending
Game over at half-time as sorry Saints are taken apart by clinical Gers
St Johnstone couldn’t make it a home and away double against Rangers, writes Eric Nicolson.
The Perth side achieved a famous victory at Ibrox earlier in the season but last night’s game was taken away from them by three first half strikes from the visitors before the teams traded goals in the second period to leave the final score at 4-1 for the visitors.
Saints were strong in the last half-hour and their boss Tommy Wright said: “I’m obviously disappointed with the result.
“It was back to how we’ve been defending at times. We gifted them the first goal and for the second we didn’t press well enough.
“Then the game ended at 3-0 with a free-kick that shouldn’t have been awarded – it wasn’t a freekick.
“It was important that we went out and were better in the second half, which we were.
“We have to take the positives from that and move on to Hamilton on Saturday.”
The way Saints finished the match was reflected in Rangers manager Graeme Murty’s comments.
He said: “I’ve got quite a flat changing room because the players thought the last 30 minutes didn’t meet the standards they have set. But I’ve told them to leave it there and not to be too down.”
McDiarmid Park may have escaped any damage from the Beast from the East but the Test from the West was much more destructive.
St Johnstone were on the end of a pretty comprehensive defeat, with the game as good as over at half-time.
Clinical Rangers had earned them selves a three-three shots on target, thanks to a James Tavernier penalty and strikes from Josh Windass and Sean Goss.
Three became four early in the second 45 after Alfredo Morelos found the net but to Saints’ credit they responded with Jason Kerr scoring his first for the club.
Hamilton Accies are up next and a win in that one will make the week a successful one and go a long way to ensuring they stay clear of the Premiership’s bottom two places.
With this game sandwiched between two against teams below them in the league, Tommy Wright freshened things up by making four changes to his starting line-up from the weekend.
An ill Scott Tanser was replaced by Aaron Comrie, while Matty Willock, George Williams and Li am Craig came in for David W other spoon, Chris Mill a rand Steven MacLean, who were all on the bench. For Rangers, Andy Halliday made his first league start in nearly a year in an unfamiliar left-back role.
Saints have had to cope with more than their fair share of injuries in recent weeks and the last thing they needed was Murray Davidson going down twice within the first five minutes.
Both were collisions in midfield and, thankfully, both didn’t prove to be game-ending.
It was a messy start to the contest but the first decent attack from either side resulted in the opening goal for Rangers on 12 minutes.
Goss sent a long diagonal ball over a flat-footed Saints defence and when Mo re los tried togo past Alan Mann us, he was brought down and referee Steven McLean pointed to the spot.
Tavernier sent the keeper the wrong way and tucked away the penalty, with the only good news for Saints being the yellow card he got rather than red.
Three minutes later Daniel Candeias had a good shooting opportunity on the edge of the box and Willock did well to get in a timely block at full stretch.
Jamie Murphy powered down the left and, with time and space to pick out a team-mate, cut the ball back for Mo re los. The Columbian didn’t make a good connection with his first-time strike, however.
Rangers had this game under their control and they got their second goal of the night on 25 minutes when a tidy assist from Greg Docherty led to Windass firing home his 16th of an increasingly impressive season.
Saints weren’t getting many opportunities to work Wes Foderingham. One came on the half-hour when Craig was fouled by Halliday at the corner of the penalty area. Instead of shooting or crossing, Craig chose to roll the ball into the path of Blair Alston, whose effort was charged down.
This was the start of a better passage of play for the hosts and on 33 minutes Foderingham produced a fingertip save to touch a Williams volley over the bar.
The on-loan Fulham winger had another go two minutes later when Foderingham dropped a Craig cross at his feet but this time it was well off target.
Just as things were looking up for Saints, they got hit by a sucker punch to go in at half-time three down. Davidson tripped Murphy on the 18-yard line and Goss go this free-kick up and over the wall to give Mannus no chance.
Saints started the second half well and won back to back corners.
From the second of those a Kerr header narrowly missed the far post.
For all their territorial improvement they were nearly punished by a swift Rangers counter-attack on 55 minutes, which was thwarted by Mannus rushing to the edge of his box.
Number four was just a minute away, though, with Morelos finishing a Tavernier cross from the tightest of angles.
W other spoon came on for Davidson on 58 minutes – probably with Saturday’s game against Hamilton in mind – and within seconds the substitute had two bites at the cherry in the Rangers box but couldn’t score from either.
Saints did find the net on 62 minutes when Kerr headed home a Craig corner at the back post.
Joe Shaughnessy’s long throws can be a potent attacking weapon for the Perth side and Steven Anderson was nearly able to guide one of them into the net 10 minutes later.
The three points had been secured by Rangers some time ago but this was an encouraging end to the match for Saints and Craig came close with a rare right foot 25-yarder on 82 minutes.
Neither team came close thereafter and 4-1 it finished.