Rangers 3-0 St Mirren: Alfredo Morelos silences critics

Colombian striker scores twice and gets an assist in Ibrox victory

“Goalscorer for Rangers – Number 20,
Alfredo Morelos!” This announcement had not been heard at Ibrox since Boxing Day last year.

It was heard twice yesterday. Whether it is heard again, who can say? There were some who wondered if the striker had already played his last game for the Ibrox club before yesterday’s visit of St Mirren following his listless display in the Europa League against Bayer Leverkusen.

He was certainly in the thick of things yesterday. It was his cross, inadvertently turned into his own net by Conor McCarthy, from which Rangers took the lead. This remained the surprisingly narrow advantage until Morelos began to really exert his influence after it threatened to prove another frustrating outing for the striker, whose days at Ibrox do appear to be coming to an end.

Rangers TV commentary team of Clive Tyldesley and Kevin Thomson. Picture: Craig Foy/SNS

Indeed, a glimpse of the future might have been spotted when Cedric Itten, a recent signing from Swiss club St Gallen, replaced Morelos shortly
after the Colombian had scored his second goal. Had Morelos been denied the chance to score a potentially farewell hat -trick?

It wasn’t to let him hear the acclaim of the crowd since there wasn’t one. He was greeted warmly enough by Steven Gerrard,
who perhaps simply 
wanted to show the striker some love himself after having “a private chat” with him following Rangers’ 1-0 defeat by Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday night.

With only one goal to his name this year, a brace had provided both parties with sufficient satisfaction. Morelos certainly did not seem too displeased to be withdrawn. He knew he had belatedly silenced some critics. Strangely, he still didn’t win the man of the match award, which went to Borna Barisic.

Referee Andrew Dallas, who once awarded four penalties to Rangers in a game against St Mirren, was in charge. Douglas Ross, the recently
appointed leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, was running the line against a backdrop of Union Jack flags draped over the empty seats in the Copland stand.

St Mirren always feared they might be up against it. So it proved. They could have little complaint as they were felled by a combination of Rangers’ quality and their own misadventure. McCarthy scored an own goal after getting in the way of Morelos’ driven cross from the right after 23 minutes.

Nevertheless, there could be little criticism made of anyone in a St Mirren rearguard. The fact they had resisted for so long was a minor miracle, as was their achievement in reaching half-time without further damage inflicted. By then the shot count was 15-0 in Rangers’ favour.

There was not much evidence here of home advantage counting for less in the absence of fans, as appeared to have been demonstrated south of the Border when football restarted.

Indeed, it seemed almost more painfully obvious that this was a match between unequal teams. Rangers poured forward. There was, perhaps, only one player from the visiting team who you could imagine augmenting the hosts’ line-up – keeper Jak Alnwick. And he is, of course, an Ibrox old boy forced to further his career elsewhere due to lack of opportunities. One reason for this was the form of Allan McGregor. The Rangers keeper was absent yesterday due to a knock picked up against Bayer Leverkusen. Jon McLaughlin stepped in for his competitive debut. Other than an Ilkay Dumus free-kick that stung his palms, it was hard to assess what he could do since the play was taking place almost exclusively in the St Mirren half of the field.

It was far easier to judge Alnwick’s worth. His form was initially something to lament as far as his old teammate Morelos was concerned. No striker who is struggling for confidence wishes to meet a goalkeeper in such a mood. Alnwick did well to beat away an effort by the Colombian after 12 minutes. No keeper in the world could have done much about the own goal with which Rangers opened the scoring.

Plenty of goalkeepers may have been unable to deal with James Tavernier’s explosive volley from the edge of the box seven minutes before half-time but Alnwick coped, diving to his right to save. Perhaps his most impressive block was down low to his right again ten minutes after half-time from a full-blooded Morelos shot from around 12 yards. When the ball came back into the box moments later Morelos placed a weak header wide.

It would have been easy for the striker
to conclude that this was another off day to add to the many he has suffered this year – his manager too, with Itten waiting patiently to come on.

But Gerrard persisted, as did Morelos.
There was certainly nothing to suggest this was a striker who had lost his touch in the way he planted a header
from Tavernier’s corner into the net with 20 minutes remaining. His old happy knack of scoring now restored, he struck once more three minutes later. The ball seemed to want to find him again and he did the rest, turning a deflected Barisic cross from the left into the net.

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