St Johnstone left Ibrox a beaten team but, in the grand scheme of things, Callum Davidson won’t be overly disappointed with what he saw.
As 4-0s go against a very good Rangers team, this was a palatable one.
An injury to Cammy MacPherson early in the contest was a big blow but the performance of his replacement, recent recruit Daniel Phillips, was extremely encouraging.
Key moments
The big sliding-doors moment for Saints came on 18 minutes when Theo Bair, after challenging Borna Barisic for a header, hooked a shot past the post from six yards as he was lying on the turf.
If you’re going to take points from Rangers, these are the chances that need to be taken.
Just after the half-hour mark the hosts were in front when Tillman found himself free to head home at the back post after Saints had half-cleared a corner.
Drey Wright being caught on the ball in the box resulted in Rangers’ second goal on 62 minutes and snuffed out any possibility of a comeback point.
The final two goals were a relative irrelevance.
Saints’ star man: Alex Mitchell
The Perth back-three as a whole was excellent once again and I could just as easily have picked Andy Considine or Ryan McGowan.
But not many 20-year-olds new to Scottish football will perform as well as Mitchell.
The headers and the blocks have caught the eye in previous games but it was the on-loan Millwall man’s positioning that was so impressive here.
He made a few last-ditch tackles but often being in the right place at the right time meant he didn’t need to.
Player ratings
Matthews 7, McGowan 7, Mitchell 8, Considine 7, Montgomery 5 (Brown), Hallberg 5, MacPherson 2 (Phillips 7), Carey 5, Bair 5 (May 5), Murphy 6 (Crawford 5), Wright 5 (O’Halloran 4).
Manager under the microscope
Davidson could have done without being forced into that early substitution when MacPherson hobbled off with a thigh injury and was replaced by new signing, Phillips.
That was an enforced one but switching Bair and Adam Montgomery for Stevie May and James Brown with half-an-hour left were sensible decisions – the Canadian was tiring and the on-loan Celtic youngster’s error count was rising.
Tiredness – mental and physical played a part in the last two Rangers goals – and the shape of Davidson’s team was largely effective.
This wasn’t a result, or a team performance, to get concerned about.
Man in the middle
There was nothing greatly controversial about Nick Walsh’s performance.
He wasn’t interested in a couple of unconvincing first half Rangers penalty shouts and the only thing Saints could grumble about was Montgomery being yellow-carded for a 50-50 challenge in midfield.
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