Watching Rangers grates again as St Mirren turn American dream into a nightmare – 3 talking points
Mikael Mandron and Toyosi Olusanya netted to ensure a first Ibrox win in 34 years for St Mirren - and blow apart any feel good factor over a potential US takeover at Rangers.
The pre-match buzz that greeted Record Sport’s exclusive revealing the San Fransisco 49ers-led interest was heightened when Celtic lost at Hibs in the lunch time kick off. But by full time the all too familiar stench of toxicity was pulsating round Ibrox as the pressure cranked up another notch on Philippe Clement.
Gers knew ahead of kick off the chance to cut the gap on Celtic was there. But if punters were hoping to blow St Mirren away early they were to be disappointed. Jack Butland almost sold the jerseys after just eight minutes when his sloppy clearance went straight to Jonah Ayunga 18 yards out but the keeper save this blushes by parrying the striker’s powerful effort with Mika Mandron firing the rebound over.
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Vaclav Cerny, Robin Propper and Cyriel Dessers went close for Gers in the opening quarter of an hour. But as impatience crept in the stands the home side’s composure seemed to disappear on the ball as Rangers lost control.
It looked to have got a whole lot worse minutes from the break when Hamza Igamane was shown a straight red for a rash lunge on Mark O’Hara. But after a VAR intervention and a quick check of the monitor ref Kevin Clancy downgraded his original decision to a yellow. It was borderline but Rangers escaped.
The reprieve could have galvanised the home side. Instead they were behind on 51 minutes. Mandron outmuscled Clinton Nsiala on the edge of the Gers’ box before rifling a shot low past Butland. Clancy initially disallowed the goal but after a VAR check correctly over ruled his decision and Saints were ahead.
Cerny blasted wide as Gers desperately hunted for a leveller. But they fell further behind on 70 minutes as Saints sub Toyosi Olusanya brushed Nsiala out the way with faer to much ease as he powered into the box before slamming a right footed effort low into the bottom corner.
Suddenly the atmosphere was toxic again - and Clement was public enemy number one for those punters that had decided to stay behind. The fact they even booed an extra nine minutes being added on. At full-time told it’s own story, Here's 3 talking points from Ibrox
Punters desperate for change
American dream off the park. Another nightmare on it. This was one of those Saturdays in Govan where the off-field story was bigger than what was happening on it - until Rangers fell behind anyway. The Record Sport exclusive revealing the heavyweight American consortium interested in buying the club brought a sense of positivity sweeping over Ibrox ahead of kick off. A smattering of stars n stripes flags in the crowd suggested the punters are on board. Why wouldn’t they be? Celtic’s defeat hours earlier also helped lift the mood ahead off kick off.
But that was soon to turn back to outright fury and disgust aimed at Philippe Clement and his players after a turgid 90 minutes. The toxic end to the last fixture here - the humiliating Scottish Cup defeat to Queen’s Park 13 days ago - was back. That’s now 25 points spilled from 27 games this season and Celtic remain 13 clear. Regime change is well down the road in the board room. But it appears to be inevitable in the dug out too where Clement’s living on borrowed time in the eyes of the vast majority of punters. Most had left Ibrox long before the whistle. Those who stayed behind made their feelings known.
Anyone got a quarterback?
Of course no matter what the future holds off the park the be all and end all is what happens ON the pitch. Right now it’s a recurring nightmare. Clement sidestepped the takeover talk in his pre-match press conference on Friday saying he is focused fully on his players and the team. With that in mind and given Celtic’s three dropped points ahead of kick off punters would have turned up expecting a pumped-up Gers performance to feed off the energy off the park. Not for the first time this season they were to be bitterly disappointed.
A sluggish first half saw too many passes go astray and when chances did present themselves they were spurned. Mohamed Diomande and Nico Raskin failed to get a grip of the midfield against the power and energy of Killian Phillips, Caolan Boyd-Munce and Mark O’Hara. There was little in the way of creation in the midfield and up top Cyriel Dessers had one of his days to forget while Hamza Igamane appears to have gone right off the boil.
But it was at the back that Gers suffered the biggest nightmare. Poor old Clinton Nsiala will be having nightmares about Mikael Mandron and Jonah Ayunga after an afternoon of being bullied by both. The summer signing from AC Milan was weak at both goals and looked devoid of confidence long before the end. John Souttar’s injury is only likely to keep the Scotland international out short term. And with the season resting on the Europa League last 16 clashes with Fenerbahce then Clement will be desperate to have Souttar back.
Robbo’s anniversary ball
It’s three years to the day that Stephen Robinson was appointed St Mirren boss and the Northern Irishman celebrated the anniversary with another monumental result. Saints had won just one win in seven league games coming into this and were dumped out the Scottish Cup in agonising style on penalty kicks against Hearts. But they have now done the home and away double over Gers - and been hugely deserving of both. This was another aggressive high energy performance that runs through the Saints’ DNA. Killian Phillips, Marcus Fraser and Alex Gogic smashed into tackles early doors to set the tone on a display that never allowed Gers to get into their flow.
Robinson went with five at the back and a two-pronged attack with Jonah Ayunga brought in to partner Mikael Mandron in place of Toyosi Olusanya. It was a balance that allowed them to defend their box strongly while carrying a powerful threat up top. The Gers’ backline will certainly wake up tomorrow knowing they were in a battle with the all action Buddies front two. Nsiala in particular struggled with the aerial threat of Mandron and Ayunga and was bullied at both goals.
Yet for all their strength at both ends of the park it was perhaps the workrate and energy of Killian Phillips, Mark O’Hara and Caolan Boyd-Munce that did the legwork on a massive victory that cements their sixth place.
