Reports of a crisis at Rangers appear to have been greatly exaggerated based on the evidence of this routine victory over St Johnstone.
“It is too early to tell whether Rangers are as good as they were last year. Certainly on today’s showing, they played better than they did on a couple of occasions last season.”
The McDiarmid Park surface may have looked like a bowling green, but once again it was a case of “turf” luck for the Saints strike force as they drew yet another blank. Manager Derek McInnes started with Sheridan and Marcus Haber in attack and later brought on Carl Finnigan, but none of them could find the back of the net.
However, Morris, who had a great scoring chance of his own late in the second half, insists the entire team are responsible for the much-documented goal drought and not just the forwards.
“The manager has brought a few strikers in which was what he was looking for,” he said. “However, it is not just the strikers, we need to chip in all over the park. We did not score enough from midfield last year and we also need to improve our set-pieces.
“We need to get better and once we get going, I am sure the strikers will pick up a few.”
Meanwhile, Rangers player Sasa Papac believes that his side can take a lot of confidence from the victory over St Johnstone into their second leg against Malmo on Wednesday night.
“We definitely have a chance of getting the right result,” he said. “We had a short pre-season this year which maybe explains why we have started a little bit slowly. But we were a lot sharper against St Johnstone and we hope to continue to get better.”
Papac’s boss Ally McCoist said, “We still have a long, long way to go but this is a small step in the right direction.”
His opposite number McInnes insisted, “There are some positives to take from the game and we will definitely improve.”
There were more than a few Saints followers sure this was the ideal time to be facing the Glasgow giants, a conviction founded on the fact that Ally McCoist’s side had only drawn against Hearts at Ibrox last Saturday in the SPL and had suffered a devastating Champions League qualifier defeat to Malmo at the same venue in midweek.
However, as Saints skipper Jody Morris acknowledged, no-one inside the St Johnstone dressing-room was under any illusions that they would have to be at their very best if they hoped to triumph over the reigning Scottish champions. Unfortunately for the Perth side, they were well short of that high standard.
Saturday was the first opportunity for the home players to perform on the expensive new surface at McDiarmid, however it was Rangers and midfield maestro Steven Davis in particular who put in a pitch perfect performance to give McCoist his first victory in a competitive match since taking over the Ibrox hot-seat from Walter Smith.
Saints hopes of causing an upset would have been boosted by an early goal and they almost secured it when Rangers signing target Murray Davidson played a neat one-two with Cillian Sheridan in the 12th minute, but the midfielder dragged his shot wide of Allan McGregor’s far post.
Davidson was also responsible for the foul which led to Rangers’ opener, with Lee Wallace flighting the resultant free-kick into Saints’ box for Steven Naismith to head home unchallenged from 12 yards.
That goal eased any Rangers nerves and the game was virtually all over as a contest just five minutes into the second half when Davis picked David Robertson’s pocket and hit a quick pass to Naismith.
The Scotland star played a defence-splitting ball to Nikica Jelavic and the Croatian clinically drilled a low shot past Peter Enckelman. Morris admitted that the sloppy loss of that first goal had proved to be the pivotal moment in the game.
“I do not think we can be too down as we were playing against a top team,” he said. “But it is really difficult to come back against a side like Rangers when you have gifted them the first goal.
“They received a boost and started to pick their game up and it was an uphill battle for us. The gaffer had stressed during the week that it did not matter what Rangers had done before, they are still the champions and a top team.
“We really had to be at our best to give them a game-unfortunately we weren’t. They showed when they went 1-0 up that they could control a game, catching us on the break. They have the players capable of doing just that, like Davis, Naismith and Jelavic.