Rangers beat St. Mirren to close the gap on Celtic: Scottish Premier League update
Rangers beat St.Mirren 1-0 in a Scottish Premier League encounter at the Greenhill road on Sunday evening. On loan defender from Arsenal, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kyle-Bartley-c21555 scored the winner, as the visitors close the gap on leaders Celtic to just five points.
St. Mirren manager http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Paul-McGowan-c29378 started upfront in a 4-4-2 formation for the hosts. On the other hand, Walter Smith made only one change
to his side that lost 1-0 to Celtic in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup last Wednesday. Sasa Papac was replaced by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Healy-c10499 for the hosts.
Both teams started cautiously, as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rangers-c40314 dominated the early possession and sprayed some neat passes in the midfield.
First chance of the game fell for the visitors, when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Steven-Davis-c34191 was heading for the top corner but Paul Gallacher palmed it away to safety. Couple of minutes
later, El Hadji Diouf’s quick throw in found http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Madjid-Bougherra-c23033, who lobbed the ball over and Bartley finished a running effort into the bottom corner to make it 1-0 for Rangers.
St.Mirren came close to scoring in the 30th minute when unmarked Kenny Mclean arrived at the back post to volley but was over by a few inches. Rangers dominated the first half with major share of possession but with little end product. The Buddies
only threatened down the flanks but they hardly entered the Rangers half.
The visitors started the second half with the intent of doubling their lead and they came close to getting their second goal, when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Maurice-Edu-c24896 sliced his header over the bar from Healy’s corner.
The game entered a slow spell of play for 15-20 minutes after the hour mark. Both teams were involved in some rugged midfield challenges and the referee had to show yellow cards to a few players to keep their tempers in check. Diouf was constantly brought
down by the St. Mirren defence as the Senegalese forward proved to be a regular threat.
Rangers should have doubled their lead in the 73rd minute, when Steven Davis played Edu, who dragged his shot wide of the goal. The hosts hardly provided any threat and could not get a shot on target in the second half, as they slumped to their
16th defeat of the season.
St. Mirren will play Heart of Midlothian in their next fixture on 19th March, while Rangers host Kilmarnock on 13th March.
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