Weir warns Gers against complacency

David Weir admits Rangers' 4-1 defeat to St Johnstone was a major lesson that the Scottish champions must learn from as they bid to retain their crown at the earliest opportunity.

The Ibrox side headed for McDiarmid Park hoping to make the rearranged game in hand count by moving 13 points clear of rivals Celtic in the title race.

Instead, they were left reeling by an impressive Saints side who – despite only winning promotion to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League last year – are now on course for a top-six finish.

A blistering start saw the home side race into a two-goal lead thanks to efforts from Cillian Sheridan and Chris Millar, before Sasa Papac pulled a goal back to hand Rangers hope of a comeback.

But any thoughts of returning to Glasgow with the points were shattered when Liam Craig netted a third for the Perth outfit before the interval and Murray Davidson came off the substitutes' bench to seal the win late on.

Rangers host Hamilton in the SPL this weekend and Weir's message was a simple one: Must do better.

"What happened here is a wake-up call for us and now we've got to use it as that," said the Gers captain.

"We've got a lot of work still to do in the title race. This is a reminder that, if we're not at our best, we can lose and this has to be a big lesson for us."

Weir became the oldest player ever to play for Rangers as he took his place at the heart of the defence 41 days short of his 40th birthday. But what should have been a memorable occasion quickly turned into a night to forget for the veteran defender and his team-mates.

Reflecting on Rangers' heaviest ever defeat to St Johnstone, Weir told www.rangers.co.uk: "I don't think anyone could have predicted that result before the game but we didn't do well enough.

"Although I don't know if 4-1 is a fair reflection of the match, I don't think anyone can claim we deserved anything from it. Their first goal was an excellent strike. Then they got a big deflection for the second that left us up against it.

"We managed to get ourselves back into the game when we pulled one back but then St Johnstone's third deflated us a bit. We had a go in the second half but we lost a fourth goal at a bad time and there are a lot of things we are disappointed with."

The reverse against Derek McInnes' men was only Rangers' second league defeat of the season, having also left Aberdeen empty-handed back in November.

Manager Walter Smith said: "I don't think I would have expected to be at this stage of the season having only lost one game but that doesn't matter.

"Anything that's done in the past is well and truly there. We have a lot to look forward to.

"The disappointing thing is that St Johnstone are striving to get into the top six and we are striving for the league championship and they looked keener and were more aggressive than we were in the first half."