Rangers survive late scare to close on Celtic

Rangers survived a late scare to close the gap on league leaders Celtic to just one point as they defeated St Mirren 2-1 at Ibrox here on Saturday.

With their Old Firm rivals not playing until tomorrow Rangers knew they could put the pressure on with a win in their Scottish Premier League clash with the Buddies.

They did so thanks to a selfless shift from Scottish striker Kenny Miller who set-up both Kris Boyd and Steven Davis to score but couldn't get the goal his display merited, with a candidate for miss of the season amongst his many chances.

St Mirren are the only team to have defeated Rangers in the league this season but there didn't seem any chance of repeating that feat in a match where they barley registered a shot on target until Franco Miranda scored with ten minutes left on a rare forage forward.

Rangers took the lead after just four minutes when Boyd scored his tenth league goal of the season. The striker headed down a pass to Miller who laid it off for Boyd to unleash a fierce low drive from the edge of the box past the helpless Mark Howard.

St Mirren could have found themselves on level terms if John Potter had been on target with his 8th minute header when he was found unmarked in the box from a corner.

Rangers doubled their lead in the 10th minute when Davis finished off a flowing passing movement involving Miller again. Kirk Broadfoot's cutback found Miller at the edge of the box and he played a perfectly weighted first-time pass into the path of Davis who sidefooted it into the bottom left-hand corner.

The Ibrox club continued to dominate and Miller was presented with a couple of chances to get his name on the scoresheet. Firstly he collected a Pedro Mendes through ball and his shot on the turn was deflected over the bar.

Then the Scotland international collected the ball in the six-yard box after good link-up play from Boyd and Adam but a Buddies defender did well to block his effort.

Charlie Adam should have increased the home side's lead in the 24th minute. Miller played the ball to Pedro Mendes who found Adam unmarked in the box but he fired his shot well over Howard's bar.

Boyd could have had his second goal of the game in the 38th minute when Miller left a Steven Whittaker cross from the left-wing for his strike partner but he hit it wide under pressure from a St Mirren defender.

Rangers came out in the second-half determined to add to their tally and captain Barry Ferguson came close in the 50th minute when his curling shot from six yards was deflected wide.

Miller then missed a spectacular chance to score in the 52nd minute. He beat Howard to the ball and rounded the keeper outside his box but he then blazed the ball over the bar when it looked easier to score.

Boyd came close in the 64th minute when, after a good one-two with Davis, he drilled the ball at goal but Howard did well to turn it out for a corner.

St Mirren scored completely against the run of play through Miranda in the 81st minute. The defender collected the ball on the left-hand side of the box and curled a shot round Allan McGregor.

Craig Dargo came close with a curling free-kick with three minutes remaining but McGregor beat it away to secure the points for Rangers.

Aberdeen drew 2-2 with Hibernian at Pittodrie with goals from Darren Mackie and Zander Diamond for the Dons and Rob Jones and Steven Fletcher for Hibs.

Michael Higdon scored the only goal of the match as Falkirk defeated Motherwell 1-0.

Jamie Hammill and David Fernandez goals sealed a 2-0 win for Kilmarnock over Dundee United Bruno Aguiar's first-half goal secured a 1-0 win for Hearts over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.