Saints stun nine-man Rangers

24 December 2011 15:16

Nine-man Rangers suffered a major blow ahead of next week's crunch Old Firm derby against Celtic after slumping to a 2-1 defeat at St Mirren in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Lee McCulloch and Dorin Goian both saw red, ruling them out of Wednesday's clash at Celtic Park, as Saints secured their first win over Rangers since 2008.

Lee Wallace opened the scoring with his maiden goal for the Scottish champions but the home side took advantage of McCulloch's first-half dismissal and hit back through goals from Aaron Mooy and Paul McGowan to secure the win before Rangers lost Goian late on to a second booking.

Rangers opened the scoring with 11 minutes gone. Sasa Papac was the provider with a lovely pass for Wallace who forced his way past Marc McAusland before rifling past Craig Samson to claim his first goal for the club.

The visitors had the ball in the net again when Gregg Wylde's swerving free-kick slipped past Samson but the effort was ruled out for an offside. Rangers suffered a setback when McCulloch was shown a straight red card after 24 minutes for violent conduct after clashing with Graham Carey.

Manager Ally McCoist made his first change of the game five minutes later when Wylde was withdrawn for the introduction of Maurice Edu. Saints almost levelled when Kenny McLean delivered a low corner to Steven Thompson at the near post and his flick forced a decent save from Allan McGregor.

But the Rangers goalkeeper was left plucking the ball out of the back of the net a minute before the break when Mooy lashed home in off the inside of the post, before McGowan met a David van Zanten pass and claimed Saints' second of the day in injury time.

Saints swapped Carey for Gary Teale at half-time, while Kyle Lafferty made way for Sone Aluko as Rangers made their second substitution. Aluko almost had a swift impact on the game five minutes after the restart with a well-struck shot but he was off-target and the effort rippled the side-netting.

Rangers pushed forward in search of the goal that could spark a comeback, and Aluko was causing some problems down the flank, but Saints defended resolutely.

Rangers' hopes were then all but dashed when they were reduced to nine men when Goian - booked earlier for a tug on Teale's jersey - was cautioned again with three minutes to go for a foul on McLean. Papac cleared a McGowan effort off the line in injury time in what was a miserable day for McCoist's men.

Source: PA