St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright frustrated after narrow defeat to Rangers

Alfredo Morelos snatched victory for Rangers with an 88th-minute winner against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

Steven Gerrard’s shot-shy Gers had toiled through the opening half in Perth and found themselves behind after Matty Kennedy put Tommy Wright’s team in front on the stroke of half-time.

But the Ibrox boss gambled when he brought on Kyle Lafferty to partner Morelos up front early in the second period and the Light Blues’ pressure eventually paid off as the Colombian pounced twice to seal a 2-1 win.

“I thought we deserved something from the game,” said Wright.

“ My feeling are of deep pride but also of deep disappointment. My players gave everything. I’m gutted for them. We wanted to win the game.

“It was as good a performance as we’ve had all season – but not the result obviously. We’ll take the positives from the performance and move on.”

There was pain etched across Tommy’s face as he went over the key moments in the game again and again.

“We denied Rangers opportunities for long parts of the game – they had to change and go two up. We defended well for most of the game and were a real threat. We could have taken the lead at 1-1 and then they go up the park and score.

“I don’t think Zander Clark had a save to make until late on in the second-half.

“We didn’t defend two crosses into the box.”

Nevertheless he was prepared to take some positives from the ninety minutes.

“We played well – if we play like that every week we’ll pick up more points than we’ll lose. There’s a lot more positives than negatives to take from this game even if it is a defeat.”