Rangers profit from best and worst of Ricksen

St Johnstone 0 Rangers

Rangers tried to lend some meaning to the Scottish Premier League title race last night at McDiarmid Park by cutting the gap on Celtic to 10 points. But Martin O'Neill's side will present a more formidable task when the pair meet on Sunday.

Tore Andre Flo and Fernando Ricksen supplied the goals which subdued a St Johnstone side now doomed to relegation.

Rangers were eager to secure a result which, they hoped, would put some pressure on their rivals ahead of Sunday's Old Firm encounter at Ibrox and even the normally-languid Flo was quick out of the blocks, producing a venomous shot which Ludovic Roy superbly pushed on to the bar after three minutes.

St Johnstone's role as the condemned men of the SPL belied their effort to give Rangers a real contest and Ricksen ought to have been in trouble for an off-the-ball elbow on Grant Murray. The defender almost made use of his fortuitous escape when he headed Arthur Numan's cross in the 22nd minute, but the excellent Roy again parried on to the bar.

The keeper, on loan from St Mirren, then took his one-man show to a new level with a series of fine saves from Andrei Kanchelskis, Billy Dodds and Tony Vidmar, before St Johnstone's fine work was undone in first-half stoppage time. Vidmar released Kanchelskis on the right and the former Manchester United winger's cross was met by Flo, whose diagonal header eluded Roy.

Ricksen's unsavoury side surface again just before the hour when he was booked for an ugly lunge at Jim Weir.

Rangers then reaped the benefit of the leniency extended to Ricksen when he doubled their lead in the 61st minute. Flo pierced the defence to gather Kanchelskis's pass and tried to steer a shot over Roy. The keeper's hand deflected the ball on to the post and Ricksen pounced to drive in his shot.

Flo could have added another goal to his haul, but instead delivered only a candidate for miss of the season by stabbing over the bar from six yards.

St Johnstone (4-4-2): Roy; Lynch, Weir, Dods, T Lovenkrands; Maher, Dasovic, Kane (MacDonald, 58), Murray; Jones (Falconer, 76), Hartley. Substitutes: Cuthbert (gk), McCluskey, McBride.

Rangers (4-3-3): Klos; Vidmar, Wilson, Amoruso, Numan; Kanchelskis, Ricksen (Nerlinger, 67), Hughes; Flo, Dodds, McCann. Subsitutes: McGregor (gk), Caniggia, Latapy, P Lovenkrands.

Referee: D Somers.

* John Hartson yesterday issued an apology to Celtic and the club's fans for his sending-off in the Scottish Cup victory at Aberdeen last week. The Welsh international striker was dismissed for lashing out at Jamie McAllister with a semi-final place already secured and was fined by his angry manager Martin O'Neill. Hartson admitted: "It always seems to be the case that whenever I am doing really well and reach the top I kick myself in the teeth. A red mist came over me. It was in no way premeditated, but I cannot condone what I did. I just lashed out."