It was a night started without a handshake. It was one ended with a shake, a rattle, and a roll from Rangers.

The build up to this Premiership encounter with St Johnstone and the Ibrox side was dominated by chat of leaks and fake news. In the end, the only story that will matter to Pedro Caixinha, the man accused of being paranoid by his St Johnstone counterpart Tommy Wright, that his team are beginning show flickering signs of promise with this 3-0 win.

A war of words in the run up to this one revolved around Caixinha’s claims his team news the last time the teams played found its way into the St Johnstone dressing room prematurely, an accusation denied by Wright. It would lead to a lack of a handshake seconds before this match. The fact there was one on full-time will be of little consolation to the St Johnstone manager whose team put so much to this only to see captain Steven Anderson sent off midway through the second half and a Carlos Pena double – yep, you read that right – and a Graham Dorrans strike consign them to their second defeat on the spin.

For all the pre-match gossip, tittle-tattle and verbal handbags that Isa from Still Game would be proud of, the first half was unsurprisingly not a patch on the juicy pre-match build up. A Rangers team – without a fit Kenny Miller in attendance as he was left at home on his beanbag – reinstated Bruno Alves and Jason Holt to the starting line up to face a St Johnstone team ready to battle their way back into their manager’s affections on the back of their dismal showing at Pittodrie a fortnight ago.

It’s fair to say for the most part the two teams cancelled each other out. The lively Stefan Scougall offered a glimpse of pace on just four minutes to wriggle beyond Josh Windass and cut back, only for Dorrans to leather it clear.

Soon after it really should have been 1-0 to the hosts. A loose Daniel Candeias pass in the middle of the St Johnstone half was intercepted by a crunching tackle from Murray Davidson on Dorrans. Steven MacLean set Graham Cummins free on a foot race with Alves as the pair sprinted to the edge of the box. Despite having a marginal edge, the striker opted to shoot from there and Wes Foderingham did well to tip over.

With only a snap shot from Windass that whistled by the post at the other end to report for Rangers, the wind was knocked out of St Johnstone’s sails on 27 minutes. Holt sprayed a ball out right to Tavernier to send a bending cross along the six yard box. With Joe Shaughnessy losing Morelos at the front post, Anderson was forced to fill in and leave Pena unmarked at the back post. The Mexican reacted quickly and his left-foot shot from inside the five-yard box hit the roof of the net.

There was one chance for Wright’s men to get level right on half-time. With one of many aerial bombardments, a Scougall corner was headed on to the back post by Anderson towards Cummins. The forward was on the byeline when he attempted to scoop the ball over his head, sending it on to the roof of the net in the process.

Half-time came and went and Rangers should have put the game to bed just eight minutes after the restart. The chance fell to Morelos who took advantage of confusion at the edge of the area to find himself one-on-one with Mannus, but the Colombian’s rushed shot was parried wide. Three minutes later Pena went even closer, his shot from a Candeias pull back trickling just wide of the left post 10 yards out.

For all St Johnstone had plenty of the ball and in the Rangers half – there was a period on the hour where they had six corners on the trot – the clear chances failed to fall on what was an ominous sign for the Perth club.

During that half a dozen corner series, Anderson was booked for a bit of argy-bargy with Alves, and with just 19 minutes left it would come back to haunt the St Johnstone captain. With Rangers on a breakaway through Morelos on the left side, the veteran centre-half cynically brought his man crashing to the ground. Don Robertson had no choice.

From then on in St Johnstone’s resistance evaporated.

If that didn’t call off any hope of a comeback, Pena’s second 12 minutes from time did. It was almost a carbon copy of the opener with another Tavernier cross to the Mexican at the back post, this time a header was required to crash it into the net from just a handful of yards out.

Wright stood with his hands on his hips as Rangers continued to come. A Dorrans piledriver soon scudded the crossbar from 25 yards out, but his goal would come soon after. Four minutes were on the clock as Rangers thrusted forward again, this time it was Holt on the right bursting into the box on the overlap. His drilled cross whizzed along the turf to the inrushing Scot, and he should no mistake by thudding it home from 12 yards to send Rangers to within three points of Aberdeen and Celtic.