St Johnstone were hit for four at Ibrox yesterday as Rangers made up valuable ground on league leaders Celtic with a confident and comfortable win.
The hosts then lost Vladimir Weiss to injury, with Greg Wylde coming on for him, before Lafferty frustrated his own fans by skying a shot after being sent clear by Steve Davis.
He had them complaining again on 34 minutes when, from a similar position, his strike was saved by Enckelman.
Rangers grabbed another goal four minutes before the break and it was all too easy for them.
Steven Whittaker played the ball forward and it took a deflection for a corner.
Sub Wylde took the kick from the right and Lafferty jumped up to nod home.
The visitors responded well in the closing stages of the half, with Jody Morris firing the ball in from 25 yards only for an acrobatic McGregor to tip it away.
When the resultant corner was delivered, it was cleared to Cleveland Taylor standing just outside the area, and his shot missed by inches.
Saints created an opening early in the second period, with Liam Craig sending the ball over from the left to the back post, Samuel nodding across to Murray Davidson, whose header was saved by McGregor.
They were carved open on 53 minutes, though, with Whittaker sending over the perfect ball to Jelavic but the striker fluffed his chance then the same player was challenged by Saints defender Steven Anderson, who was booked by ref Steven McLean.
Davidson hit the side netting with a shot from 15 yards on the hour mark as the Perth men enjoyed more of the ball, then Danny Grainger tried his luck with a free-kick from 35 yards but it was held by McGregor.
Invincibile came off the bench on 64 minutes, with Taylor making way, and was joined later by Arveydas Novikovas, who came on for May.
Jelavic sent a setpiece on to the roof of the net from 25 yards then the striker played a starring role in the Light Blues’ third goal on 82 minutes.
The ball was played to him at the edge of the box with his back to goal and he back-heeled it into the path of the in-rushing Papac, who placed his shot past Enckelman.
A minute later, the Saints goalie dived at the feet of Rangers sub John Fleck, who fell to the ground. The shouts went up from Fleck and others looking for a penalty but ref McLean waved away all appeals.
Enckelman was the hero for Saints on 88 minutes, diving to hold a point-blank shot from Jelavic after good work by Davis and Whittaker, but he could not thwart the striker again two minutes into injury time, with Jelavic side-footing home from 12 yards to make it four.
Attendance 43,125.
The hosts carried on the good work from Lisbon, where they sneaked past Sporting into the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday night, by seeing off Saints to take advantage of the Hoops’ defeat at Motherwell.
A double from Nikica Jelavic (six and 92 minutes) and counters from Kyle Lafferty (41) and Sasa Papac (82) were more than enough to send the Perth men home with nothing.
The atmosphere inside Ibrox before kick-off was charged, with the light blue legions buoyed both by the Euro success and the news that their title rivals had earlier lost 2-0 at Fir Park.
It meant their team could go five points behind with two games in hand on the Hoops should they win this one, while it was St Johnstone’s job to stop that.
The visitors couldn’t do it and that left a disappointed McDiarmid manager Derek McInnes to sum up an afternoon that also saw them lose defender Michael Duberry to a groin injury.
“I think we were beaten convincingly in the end,” said McInnes.
“The goals we lost were really disappointing.
“We knew Rangers would come out and try to get the game won early doors so we hoped to start better than we did.
“There was some good play from Rangers but other than the third goal it didn’t result in anything.
“They got a break for the first one and the second was a setplay. The third was a decent bit of play from them then the fourth looked scrappy from our point of view.
“It should mean something to the players (to be losing) and I thought in the second half at least we had a lot more of the game.Damage done”The damage was done by then, though.”
McInnes said Duberry could be out for “a few weeks” after the big man hurt himself after falling awkwardly into the advertising hoardings. Ibrox manager Walter Smith was a happy man.
He said, “It was a good day for us. We managed to get a goal early on and then another.
“We played very well in the first half but Saints pushed us back for the first time early in the second half. That was their best spell.
“We managed to get back into it and got a good third goal. We then missed a couple of opportunities but I am delighted that we finished strongly.”
Saints left their latest signing Danny Invincibile, the former Kilmarnock man who joined late last week on the bench. They went with Collin Samuel as sole striker, supported by Stevie May just behind him.SurpriseThe big surprise sprung by Rangers was the absence of skipper David Weir. The veteran Scotland central defender was given a rest following testing times against Celtic and Sporting.
Young Kyle Bartley stepped in for Weir, while Northern Ireland striker David Healy made his starting debut.
The home side took the lead with less than six minutes on the clock. Defender Madjid Bougherra was in the thick of things inside the St Johnstone box and the ball broke back to Maurice Edu just outside the area.
His shot was blocked but it ricocheted to Jelavic, whose blasted into the net.
There was a blow for Saints with 17 minutes gone when central defender Duberry was hurt, and replaced by Alan Maybury.
Saints were on the back foot on 22 minutes when Lafferty raced down the left flank. His cross was swiped at unsuccessfully by Jelavic but Healy did connect and brought a fine save out of keeper Peter Enckleman.
May had Saints’ first attempt at goal on 25 minutes but his shot was from too far out to threaten goalie Allan McGregor, who gathered easily.