Rangers 4-0 St Mirren: Colak & Sakala shine in routine win
Colak #Colak
Rangers ensured they kept pace with Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership with an emphatic 4-0 victory over St Mirren on Saturday.
The visitors came into this one in excellent form, with a 2-0 win over the league leaders in their recent past, but they were nowhere near a match for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side.
Rangers were ahead after just a few minutes when Antonio Colak finished off a moment of penalty box pinball which stemmed from a fierce strike from Borna Barisic. The left-back’s effort struck the post and found its way to Colak, who was in the right place at the right time.
There was an air of good fortune about the opener but it was the least that Rangers deserved, and the second eventually came on the half-hour mark.
Colak was felled in the box by Declan Gallagher and, predictably, up stepped James Tavernier to lash the ball right down the middle and into the back of the net.
St Mirren’s first shot on goal came around five minutes from half-time, which tells you everything you need to know about the first 45.
A brighter start for the visitors had the second half looking as though it could actually be competitive, and Mark O’Hara should have pulled one back midway through the half, but he was made to pay for his profligacy as Rangers went down the other end and scored a third.
An excellent run from Fashion Sakala ended with a pass to Colak, who unleashed a glorious strike with the outside of his boot which nestled in the back of the net and offered a fair reflection as to the quality of Rangers’ play all afternoon.
Curtis Main thumped the bar with a long-range rocket as we approached the dying embers, but there was still time for a fourth from Rangers.
Sakala, the architect of the third, was fed through by Alfredo Morelos and made no mistake as he curled the ball into the back of the net in stoppage time.