Rangers ease to victory over St Johnstone

Rangers continued their winning run with a 2-0 victory over St Johnstone to maintain their four-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

The Ibrox side dominated from the first whistle, with St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark producing a string of saves to keep the match goalless.

Rangers took the lead just before half-time when striker Alfredo Morelos was left unmarked to head in Connor Goldson’s ball at the back post.

Morelos set up Ryan Kent for the second just after the break, squaring the ball to the winger to fire under Clark.

St Johnstone struggled to create chances and were screaming for a penalty when Glen Kamara appeared to bring down Liam Craig in the box, but it was the Saints defender who picked up a booking.

The result sees Rangers remain four points clear of Celtic, who snatched a last-gasp 2-1 win at Ross County, at the top of the Scottish Premiership, while St Johnstone stay bottom and without a league win since October.

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst also maintains his 100 per cent league record with five wins out of five since replacing Steven Gerrard.

Saints were the last Scottish team to beat Rangers at Ibrox, on their way to winning last season’s Scottish Cup, but the game was gone before they started creating any chances.

Rangers were aggressive going forward and Kent should have had a hat-trick before half-time, but was denied by Clark three times and dragged another effort wide.

Defenders James Brown, Shaun Rooney, and Jamie McCart cleared the danger to stop Rangers’ attackers as the visitors clung on, before Morelos eventually found the goal just before half-time.

The Colombian striker was left unmarked at the back post to nod in his 12th goal of the season after Goldson had flicked on James Tavernier’s corner.

Within five minutes of the restart Kent finally scored his goal as he swept home from close-range after Joe Aribo played in Morelos to square the ball across the box.

The visitors improved and McCart was off target with a free header before they had a penalty claim denied after Craig intercepted Borna Barisic’s pass to Kamara and burst into the box.

The midfielder decided to go down looking for a spot-kick with Kamara in close pursuit rather than go for goal and then smothered the ball with his hands. The referee gave Rangers a free-kick and booked Craig for his subsequent dissent.

Man of the match: Joe Aribo

The midfielder is in form right now and impressed once again, even out of possession, as Rangers constantly recovered the ball to prevent St Johnstone creating many chances.

Aribo was unlucky not to score early on when his shot came crashing off the woodwork.

He constantly found clever pockets of space to combine with team-mates, and was deserving of his man-of-the-match award.

Dundee Utd confident Rangers game will go ahead despite Covid scare

Dundee United are confident Saturday’s match against Rangers will go ahead despite the club cancelling Wednesday’s training session at their St Andrews base due to a Covid-19 scare.

The Tannadice club are awaiting the results of PCR tests after a positive lateral flow was returned within the squad.

The situation will become clearer on Thursday but United are optimistic there is no threat to their trip to Ibrox at the weekend.

If a team has 13 players, including a goalkeeper, over the age of 18, they are obliged to fulfil the fixture.

What’s next?

Rangers host Dundee United on Saturday, while St Johnstone travel to Motherwell, also on Saturday, with both Scottish Premiership games kicking off at 3pm.