Rangers end winless away run with comfortable victory at St Mirren
Ryan Naderi and Dan Neil were the scorers for Derek McInnes’ men.
Rangers banished their recent away day blues with a solid 2-0 win over St Mirren in Paisley.
Draws against Dundee and Hearts in their last two William Hill Premiership games away from Ibrox had blemished the Gers’ focused title challenge, but Derek McInnes’s side were determined to leave The Marbill Coaches Stadium without a mark on them.
In-form striker Ryan Naderi scored with a soft penalty after 18 minutes before returning skipper Dan Neil added a second just after the hour mark with a deflected strike to extend the Light Blues’ unbeaten run in all competitions to 12 games.
Rangers moved to within one point of leaders Celtic having played the same number of fixtures, albeit the Hoops can can restore their four-point lead against Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on Sunday before the the international break gives the league another breather.
The unusual 8pm kick off on a Saturday night added atmosphere to the evening. St Mirren boss Craig McLeish made five changes, with Declan John, Louis Jackson, Samuel Ramos, Ismeal Kabia and Jake Young all coming in while Neil replaced Tuur Rommens and James Penrice dropped to left-back.
Amid a hurly-burly start to the game, Buddies keeper Jacob Chapman saved an early effort from Rangers wide-man Badredine Bouananai, then in the 12th minute made a crucial block from Naderi, who latched on to a Kevin Kelsy header, at the expense of a corner which came to nothing.
However, the big striker soon made amends.
Back-tracking St Mirren attacker Ramos was far from happy when referee Nick Walsh pointed to the spot following his challenge on Penrice just inside the box, after the Gers defender had raced 60 yards to back up the Light Blues’ South Korea international attacker Kim Min-su.
It looked like there had been little contact but a VAR check confirmed the penalty and Naderi, with a stuttering run up, casually sent Chapman the wrong way with his spot-kick for his ninth goal of the season.
The aggrieved home side fought furiously to get back on level terms and on a counter after 37 minutes, Ramos tested visiting keeper Ivor Pandur with a decent drive from the edge of the box, before Jake Young fired a shot high over the bar.
In a sprightly start to the second half, with Kim showing some delightful touches around the St Mirren penalty area, Kelsy drove wide of the far post from 16 yards.
Then, in the 54th minute, Kim set up Kelsy but Chapman brilliantly deflected the close-range dink and the home side got the ball to safety before the stretching Kelsy could not connect properly with a cross from midfielder Nicolas Raskin.
However, the visitors eventually got the second when another swift attack ended with the ball coming out to Neil, whose shot came off St Mirren defender Louis Jackson and ended up in the back of the net.
St Mirren kept battling and Pandur made a terrific save from substitute Eseosa Sule’s strike from a Declan John cross.
The Rangers keeper then denied another St Mirren replacement, Luke Thomas, before Saints defender Calvin Ramsay headed against the outside of the post from the rebound, and that was effectively the end of St Mirren’ possible comeback.