Rangers don’t give up fight for title, St. Mirren hat-trick downs Roofe

In the final match of the 33rd round of the Scottish Football League, St. Mirren and Rangers FC played against each other. The visiting team, who are fighting with their rivals Celtic for the title, wanted to keep a playable distance from the first place before the play-offs. The home side were already assured of a place in the group.

A week ago, Rangers failed to turn around Celtic for points due to a 1:2 defeat, and they did not fare well on the international stage either. On Thursday, they lost in the Europa League quarter-finals to Braga, who secured a better position for the rematch with a 1-0 win. The team from Glasgow wanted to tune up for it with a good result in the last round of the Scottish Premiership.

They came into the St. Mirren stadium as favourites and had the upper hand from the start. As early as the 2nd minute, a header from Kemar Roofe sent Rangers into the lead. The home side didn’t get a single shot off during the first half, so another penalty came in the setup. Aaron Ramsey still only hit the crossbar, but moments later Roofe, the scorer of the opening goal, didn’t hesitate and scored his second goal with a header.

The half-time score of 0:2 could have promised the realization of the famous Csaplár trap, but it was not so. In the 50th minute, the Jamaican striker scored a hat-trick by winning a deflected ball and beating goalkeeper Lyness for the third time. Twelve minutes later, the hero of the match was replaced by Amad Diallo, who had an interesting chance moments later but missed.

Nigerian winger Joe Aribo sealed the four-goal victory with a shot from outside the area into the top left corner from just outside the large whitewash. Even with a 7:22 shot ratio and 72% ball possession by the Rangers players, the clear victory was well deserved.

The Protestant club from Glasgow are defending last year’s title but are six points behind Celtic ahead of the title group. In the last five games of this season’s Scottish top flight, they will still want to try to attack the leaders. However, this year’s mutual balance is more favourable for the Catholics.

Apart from these two teams, Hearts, Dundee United, Ross County and Motherwell are also in the top six. However, Hearts in third place are an abysmal 15 points behind Celtic, so the title race is only between the two most successful Scottish clubs in history.

Rangers’ rivals, St. Mirren, are currently in tenth place with 36 points. Above them in the table are Hibernian, Livingston and Aberdeen. The clubs most at risk of relegation are St. Johnstone with 30 points and last-placed Dundee FC. The latter has a five-point gap on the penultimate team.

Source: Scottish Premiership, Livesport