Rangers 3-1 St Johnstone: Walk on by

Rangers returned to winning ways on Sunday with a relatively comfortable victory over the Saints. There were no surprises in the starting line-up as Clement returned to the 442 with Danilo replacing Bajrami. The result was certainly overshadowed by the UB walkout in the 55th minute, which we will get to later.

We got off to a quick start with an early Igamane snapshot flashing wide of the goal. There was good intensity about us as we pressed St Johnstone into blind alleys and won the ball back. I did think a theme of the first half was how vulnerable we looked on the break. There were several occasions when a loose pass allowed the Saints to advance onto our backline, thankfully for us the decision making was poor and we were often able to regain possession.

The opening goal was a product of our early pressure. Danilo forced the St Johnstone full back out of play, took the throw in quickly to Cerny, who had moved over to the left hand side during the press. Cerny's quick pass round the corner found Diomande who cut the ball back for a first time Igamane finish into the empty net. It was a slick move, but I'm starting to look at the goals we score under Clement with a real critical eye. Was this a goal manufactured by a good structure? Or did Cerny take it upon himself to move into that space? We've seen in recent games that the forwards don't seem to have fixed roles and as a result will hunt for the ball in other areas.

It was nice to have a goal to celebrate, and we added two more in the half. Danilo picked up the ball after a great Propper tackle in midfield, Cerny took up a great position in the blind spot of the opposition backline. Danilo played a great ball through and the Czech winger poked the ball past the onrushing keeper with ease.

Cerny was involved in the third goal too, after advancing forward swiftly with the ball on the right, he cut inside and whipped a cross into the 6 yard box. Sanders made a bit of a pigs' ear of a ball that should have been left to drift out for a goal kick. His knockdown inadvertently found Diomande who had ran beyond the frontline well all half, he headed home easily and that was all she wrote for the first half.

It was the best possible half for the team after a difficult few weeks. However, we were certainly helped by the Saints commitment to playing through our press when most teams would have gone long and regrouped. That commitment is admirable, I want teams in Scotland to try and better themselves, but after that first half it looked very naïve.

The second half had significantly less excitement than the first. It felt like everyone was waiting for the 55th minute to see how many walked out. Our on-the-ground reporter Jack tells us "The Union Bears had made a point of not singing anything apart from chants about the board and had 3 banners to that effect ahead of the walkout. There were a lot of individuals leaving around the stadium, the biggest walkout was obviously the Union Bears. Clearly the biggest thing were the boos from the rest in the stadium. It didn't seem to have the intended effect, especially with Clement thinking it was about the away form and not the board."

Opinions on the walkout are divided among the support. I think it's good to see people trying to enact change and show some agency in the face of recent mediocrity. Give them some metal sharks and see what they can do next.

I don't want to blame the walkout but for me the game fell flat in the second period. This wasn't helped by a St Johnstone goal coming from a corner. Hagi was ragdolled by Sanders as the big centre half atoned for his error with a good header.

Given how easily we'd exposed the Saints backline in the first half, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we simply turned on the style and put a few more past them. That's not really the MO of this team at the moment though. Instead it felt like we really let the game pass us by. St Johnstone looked far more likely to get another goal.

Clement brought on Dessers and Cortes to try liven things up. The Colombian certainly tried to make things happen and had a good effort saved. But overall we seemed content for the rest of the game to just play out. But given how flat the atmosphere was all game, I wonder if it started to affect the players intensity.

Have we learned anything more from this game? Not really. Igamane and Cerny will always put their heart into winning and scoring goals because they want to play football. Diomande is so much better when Raskin is there to give him the platform to play. We still don't know how to defend set pieces. Dessers has really phoned it in and should be moved on as soon as possible.

Aside from that, it's time to wait and see what unfolds over the week, hopefully a signing or two. Have a good week everyone.