Victory Sends Rangers Top Of The League.

McDiarmid Park.

Rangers have returned to the top of the league by beating St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park where the pitch was in rather poor condition.

The hosts started the better of the two forcing Rangers keeper McGregor into action on multiple occasions and continued to match them all over the park.

It was the pitch who gave the Gers a helping hand in the goal,As Danny Grainger's attempted pass to the keeper got caught up Kyle Lafferty picked up on the mistake to round keeper Peter Enckelman and tap the ball in.

The Saints didnt sit back however and they again set out to score and McGregor was again called into action again and managed to keep all attempts out but he saw his goal kicks fall short as the pitch was causing trouble for everyone.

Lafferty again ran onto a through ball from Sasa Papac but it was blocked by the Saints defender,The Ulsterman later booked for dissent after being unhappy when he was judged to have fouled in his attempts to win the ball.

In the second half the chances kept coming as Jelavic scuffed a shot wide.St Johnstone had chances of their own but as McGregor kept out a swinging cross which dropped to Danny Invincibile he was unable to convert the rebound.

The game was approaching the final whistle and Rangers knew they had to score again to avoid dropping points as happened on Saturday and just seven minutes from time it was Steven Naismith who got the goal.It was Naismith who started the attack,heading to Jelavic who gave him the ball back and he carried on his run to slot past the oncoming Enckelman.

Maurice Edu's header from John Fleck's corner was blocked by a St Johnstone defender as Rangers looked to add to their score.

Jelavic then smashed the underside of the crossbar after skilfully evading two defenders and Naismith's rebound header ended up going wide of the post.

 Edu had another chance to grab a goal but his shot was well saved by the keeper.

So Rangers return to top of the league with a satisfying 2-0 for Walter Smith's men.

St Johnstone: Enckelman, Maybury, MacKay, Duberry, Grainger, Millar, Moon, Davidson, Craig, Invincibile, Robertson.
Subs: Smith, Novikovas, Taylor, Anderson, MacDonald, May, Caddis.

Rangers: McGregor, Foster, Weir, Whittaker, Papac, Naismith, Davis, Edu, Wylde, Jelavic, Lafferty.
Subs: Alexander, Fleck, Diouf, Kerkar, Ness, Hutton, Cole.