Early-bird Boyd shoots down St Mirren

Rangers survived a late scare to secure a narrow 2-1 win over St Mirren at Ibrox that moved them up to second in the Scottish Premier League and cut Celtic’s advantage at the top.

It looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for the Buddies after Kris Boyd fired Rangers into the lead after just 18 seconds but the Paisley side were unlucky not to equalise before the SPL top-scorer got his second in the 57th minute.

St Mirren were never out of the game, however, and pulled a fine goal back with just two minutes remaining through substitute Stephen O’Donnell.

With Celtic not playing Falkirk until tomorrow the win puts pressure on Tony Mowbray’s side and cuts their lead in the race for the championship to just one point.

St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson was left to rue his team’s start.

“That’s the worst possible start you can have, but credit to them the way they came back after that,” he said.

“When you lose goals like that it’s always going to be difficult.”

His opposite number Walter Smith said Rangers had squandered quite a few opportunities after a whirlwind start.

“Overall we are delighted to win the game but it was obviously a bit closer than I would have hoped, especially after a better second half than we had in the first half,” he said.

“When we got the second goal we could have gone on and scored two or three after that as we had some good chances but missed them.”

Smith made three changes to the side that drew with Unirea Urziceni in Wednesday’s Champions League clash by bringing in Boyd, Nacho Novo and John Fleck.

And Boyd, who didn’t even make it off the bench in Romania, showed his manager what he had been missing when he scored one of the fastest goals of the season straight from kick-off.

The one-time Scotland international started the move when he headed the ball on to Steven Naismith, who in turn played in Fleck.

The teenager’s rocket shot fell into the path of Novo who knocked it to Boyd with his knee and the striker fired it into the net from four yards.

Boyd then turned provider when he set Naismith free but Paul Gallacher did well to hold onto his rising shot from just inside the box.

The home side were overwhelming St Mirren in the early stages but the visitors slowly settled into the game, with a fierce strike from 30 yards by Andy Dorman forcing Allan McGregor into a finger-tip save.

Fleck’s pace was causing the Buddies problems and he came close to increasing the lead in the 19th minute when Gallacher could only palm his powerful drive in the direction of Boyd, who sent his first-time shot past the post.

St Mirren could have had an equaliser just minutes later when Dorman played in Garry Brady, whose clever chip shot from just inside the box hit the far post with McGregor beaten.

A slow start to the second half livened up when Hugh Murray knocked the ball off his own crossbar as he defended Steven Davis’s cross with Boyd breathing down his neck in the 56th minute.

Boyd wasn’t to be denied a minute later, though, when he got his second of the game after some slack play from Steven Thomson.

The midfielder held onto the ball for too long on the edge of his own box allowing Fleck to rob him of possession.

Substitute DaMarcus Beasley picked up the loose ball and played in Novo, whose pass across the six-yard box was knocked in by Boyd.

The Scottish striker was hungry for a hat-trick and crashed a header off the bar with Gallacher beaten minutes later.

Novo picked out Fleck wide on the left in the 73rd minute but after cutting inside the teenager could only send his shot straight at the keeper.

St Mirren made the final moments difficult for Rangers when they pulled one back through sub Stephen O’Donnell in the 88th minute as he converted Billy Mehmet’s cross from six yards.

Elsewhere, Dundee United won 2-0 away to Kilmarnock, Aberdeen defeated St Johnstone 2-1, Motherwell and Hamilton drew 2-2 and the Edinburgh derby between Hearts and Hibernian ended goalless.