St Johnstone manager Craig Levein was proud of his 10-man team for not “crumbling” at Ibrox.
The Perth side had to play for over an hour without DJ Jaiyesimi.
Levein had no complaints over the decision to show Jaiyesimi a red for a sliding challenge on John Lundstram.
And he certainly had no complaints about the performance from the rest of his side, who held onto hope of getting something from the game until the 85th minute when James Tavernier scored a penalty.
“There was lots of effort and concentration and running from my team which gives me lots of positives,” said Levein.
“Playing out from the back with a man short is not very easy at Ibrox but a couple of times we got it right.
“We had some moments in the second half where our build up play was really good but we never really got the chance to make anything of it, through good defending by Rangers at times.
“Rangers are in really good form just now off the back of two brilliant results.
“They have very potent attackers, a strong defence and a good midfield.
“The boys could have crumbled going down a man down and being 1-0 down. It could have been a lot worse than it was.
“They showed great determination to keep the score as it was and they tried in the second half to build some play and create some chances.
“All in all I am disappointed, of course, that we did not get any points from this but there was enough in the match to allow us to talk about some really positive things.”
No complaints
On the ordering off, Levein said: “I thought it was a red card. I thought the referee was right.
“In the modern day that’s a red – certainly if it had happened to one of our players I’d be calling for a red card so I am not going to sit here and say anything different.
“He has gone in with force and not got the ball.”
Rangers boss Philippe Clement was unhappy with Jaiyesimi’s tackle, saying Lundstram was “kicked off the pitch.”
“I’m a little bit boiling now,” he said. “It clearly wasn’t a good challenge.”
He also mentioned a second half tackle from a Saints player which had the “intensity to break a leg”.
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