Rangers........0

St Johnstone 2

Any solace Rangers' fans may look for after this result at

McDiarmid Park can only come from the after-match remarks made by St Johnstone substitute Leigh Jenkinson, whose appearance in the first half for the injured Calum Davidson, simply added to the Ibrox problems.

The Welsh winger, out of favour with the Perth fans,

tormented Sergio Porrini and, later Craig Moore, and flung in a succession of crosses to trouble the Rangers' defence.

Yet, at the end, after savouring the victory, Jenkinson declared: ''It doesn't matter about this result today as far as the title is

concerned.

''If I was a betting man then my money would still be on Rangers to be champions at the end of the season. They are a class act and I am a great fan of Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup - they can turn it on for them.

''I think, today, we went into the game with the right attitude and maybe that stemmed from being able to beat Celtic here a few weeks back. That result made us believe that we could do it all over again.

''It also told us that we didn't have to fear any team in the league because we have been able to beat them all - except, I think, Hearts.

''As for myself, I accepted that I was going to be on the bench when the manager read out the team.

''I was shocked that he had made that decision, but he has not let anyone down so far and I just had to get on with things. Then, Calum gets injured and I get on after half an hour or so and it all works out for us.''

Jenkinson has been a target for some of the St Johnstone supporters, but he insists that injuries have been his real problem and now that he is clear of those he will be ready to show exactly what he can do. Rangers' defenders can give evidence in his favour after this match.

His manager Paul Sturrock grinned: ''I'll probably have Leigh Jenkinson banging on my door on Monday morning and asking why he wasn't in the team and he would have a point. But I decided on a line-up I thought was needed on the day and that meant a place for Alan Preston and he stayed on after Calum Davidson was hurt and did a fine job for us.''

It was, of course, a famous day for the little Perth club. One which saw them defeat Rangers for the first time in 26 long years; one which saw them move into fourth place in the premier division table; and one which saw them complete a double over the Old Firm.

Not a normal situation down McDiarmid Park way, though Sturrock insists he wants to

continue down this road.

''We want to become one of the better teams in the Premier League,'' he said. ''We have a three-year plan. We want to

consolidate our position in the Top Ten first and then we want to build on that until we can look on ourselves as one of the top teams in the league.

''We have a points' target for safety from relegation which we have almost reached now and that is the first priority for this club. Then we can keep on improving. And I would just like to emphasise that there are some players here who don't get enough praise. There are honest tradesman who play away week after week with tremendous consistency and never get a mention. But lads like John O'Neil and John McQuillan and Alan Preston are vital to this team.''

O'Neil scored Saints' first goal after 37 minutes, while

McQuillan and Preston were immense in defence.

The second goal came from George O'Boyle some 20

minutes from the end at a time when Rangers were pushing

forward. Indeed, the little Irishman admitted: ''They were so desperate to get back in the game because of the title that we thought they would leave gaps and then, right after half time I missed one chance and I was just glad to get that other one.''

That killed off Rangers

completely, even though the Ibrox men had goal opportunities from Richard Gough several times as they thrust forward.

But, on the day, they were not good enough. They lacked

imagination and, more worrying for their fans and for manager Walter Smith, they lacked passion and determination.

Smith admitted as much after the game when he pointed out: ''We did not play well last week against Hamilton, although we did get a result in the cup-tie. Now we played badly again today and it is as if we are only reacting to what the opposition do and that is not good enough for Rangers. We did not trouble Alan Main enough in the first half and, even afterwards, the main problems we gave them were from set pieces. We have no complaints about the result. St Johnstone deserved their win.''

Paul Gascoigne was on the bench until 10 minutes after half- time because he is still being

troubled by a groin injury while Jonas Thern was missing after damaging his back in training on Thursday.

But these were not excuses enough for this Rangers' performance, though, it has to be said that St Johnstone looked

organised and much better than simply competent!

Next Games - St Johnstone v Kilmarnock (a). Rangers v Dunfermline (h).