Saints lose in hard-fought cup clash

Jan 13 2009 By Katy Gordon

St Johnstone 0

Rangers 2

ST JOHNSTONE lost out in a closely battled Scottish cup fourth round match against Rangers.

It was the home side who seemed to dominate the first half hour of play, creating chances, with Gavin Swankie in particular working hard to try and get goals.

Early on in the game Chris Millar was shown a yellow card for his tackle on Mendes.

Liam Craig, Andy Jackson and Gavin Swankie took turns in making Alan McGregor work in the away goal. But it was the goalie at the other end of the park who provided Rangers the chance to pull ahead mere minutes before the end of the half.

Alan Main came away from his line and out of the box in a bid to clear the ball, but a mishit led him to have to scramble back to the goal mouth. A cross in went between the legs of Kenny Miller and was hit home inadvertantly by Stuart McCaffrey at 42 minutes.

In the second half, Rangers took their chance to dominate, and it seems as though Saints' confidence and energy was lost after the first half blunder.

Collin Samuel took to the pitch in place of Jackson and he was soon in the midst of play. Another yellow was shown, this time to Rangers' Bougherra for his shot at Samuel.

70 minutes gone and Naismith was swapped out for Nacho Novo, who seemed to be the difference maker for the match leaders. And Paul Sheerin took the place of defender Hanlon, who'd had a great match.

A Mendes booking on Jody Morris was the final of the game.

And it was Novo who gave Rangers their second goal in 78 minutes, after a cheeky pass in the box from Davis put him in the perfect scoring position.

Sitting comfortably, Rangers took the chance to swap out Miller and Boyd for McCulloch and Fleck. The final Saints substitution came within the final five minutes, as Steven Milne replaced Gavin Swankie.

St Johnstone will be stinging as for a second year in a row, Rangers ended their hopes for Scottish Cup silverware.

For a full report on Tuesday's game, see the Perthshire Advertiser on Friday