St Johnstone couldn’t turn two Premiership draws in a row into three at the weekend.
Following a share of the points against Celtic and Dundee it was defeat to Rangers.
Courier Sport picks out three talking points from Saturday lunchtime’s contest.
Two VAR close-calls, one big mistake
Rangers deserved their win.
The Ibrox side weren’t that impressive by Old Firm standards but they scored two good goals from their perspective and eased the pressure on Michael Beale.
It would have been interesting to see how they reacted to their lead being wiped out and three stands’ worth of fans turning on them early in the second half, though.
And Saints should have been granted the opportunity to do just that from the penalty spot.
St Johnstone second penalty shout v Rangers.
Rangers have went a record 60 league games without conceding a penalty, https://t.co/PlBALWwoVX pic.twitter.com/2ditE0VgAw
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) September 16, 2023
I still can’t make my mind up about the Butland-Kane incident so can understand the VAR official not seeing an obvious refereeing error.
Of the two long checks, the second was the one that should have resulted in Nick Walsh being sent to the pitch-side monitor.
What is and isn’t a penalty seems to change every summer, sometimes mid-season, but both arms around an opponent causing him to go to the ground when a corner has been taken is still an offence as far as I’m aware.
The Kane effect
A bit like with Stevie May, only people who have regularly watched St Johnstone over the last decade truly appreciate Chris Kane.
Much has been said and written about his return to the Saints side in the last couple of weeks and Saturday was further evidence of his worth.
Even in a game like this when his team didn’t see much of the ball, things happens around him.
Like those two penalty claims.
Kane put himself about, occupied the Rangers centre-halves, won a few headers and produced link-up play that fully justified his first league selection from the start for the best part of two years.
He looked and played like a robust number nine and let’s hope that his body holds up to week on week top-flight football and he stays that way.
Kane has gone from impact sub to starter and now to one of the first names on the team-sheet very quickly.
The position of who plays in the role just off him remains up for grabs, with Graham Carey making more of an impact when he went wide in the second half than he did through the middle in the first.
But it will be a case of Kane and one other against Hibs.
Pace at the back
In his post-match media conference, Beale went into detail about his game-plan and the main attacking avenues he had identified.
An “area that we targeted with St Johnstone was up and around their centre-backs,” he said.
You would imagine this will become a recurring theme of opposition analysis given none of the three central defenders who have started for the Perth side in the Premiership so far – Liam Gordon, Andy Considine and Sam McClelland – are blessed with raw pace.
Sound positional play and team shape can compensate for that, of course, with the 0-0 draw at Celtic Park a perfect example.
Over 90-plus minutes, Saints were never stretched that day.
The same was the case for big spells of Saturday’s match as well.
They are probably at their most vulnerable when they cough possession up pushing forward, as was the case for Rangers’ second goal.
🔵 "It's a really cool finish!"
Tom Lawrence links up with substitute Rabbi Matondo who slots home Rangers' second goal against St Johnstone! 👇 pic.twitter.com/LkBnaPhetA
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) September 16, 2023
Maybe a few weeks deeper into the season, Dare Olufunwa will have the match fitness to get back and snuff out the danger of a counter-attack like that.
With more Premiership game-time under his belt, he might also become a serious contender to be deployed in the middle of the back four – the position the former Southampton and Liverpool defender played most of his development football at.
That’s unlikely to happen at Easter Road next weekend.
But, with Hibs carrying one of the quickest forward lines in the league, it’s likely to be a similar exam paper MacLean and his defenders will be set.
Conversation