Rangers 2-1 St Johnstone | Scottish Premier League match report

Forward scores fifth goal in three games to secure nervy win, but there are mixed fortunes for Ibrox new boys

This was the kind of encounter to which Walter Smith refers when continually stressing the Old Firm don't have it easy on the domestic front. An afternoon that started with the majority of Ibrox taking audible satisfaction from Celtic's exit from Europe offered anxiety for the light-blue legions thereafter.

St Johnstone, who arrived with and stuck to a 4-4-2 system, could not be accused of stifling the contest. If there was an air of inevitability surrounding the prospect of a Rangers winner as the clock ticked down, the level of celebration that met it showed how edgy matters had been for the hosts. Thankfully for Smith, Kenny Miller is making an early season habit of being in the right place at the right time.

Over the past two years, Rangers supporters have been denied the anticipation that precedes the arrival of new players. But fresh blood has finally arrived at Ibrox, with Vladimir Weiss, James Beattie and Nikica Jelavic boosting Smith's attacking options. Jelavic represents something of a marquee signing given the £4m bestowed on Rapid Vienna for his services plus a weekly wage of £20,000. Yet he started on the bench here, with Beattie partnering Miller up front and Weiss charged with offering supply from the left flank.

St Johnstone need only beware second-season syndrome. They impressed many in the last campaign, which marked their return to the top flight. Having collected just one point from the two league games they had played before today, the indications were things could prove tougher this time around.

Derek McInnes's plans at Ibrox suffered an early setback with the enforced withdrawal of Murray Davidson. The industrious young midfielder left the pitch on a stretcher and with his head in a brace after an accidental collision with his team-mate Marcus Haber and Rangers' Steven Davis.

The incident did not halt the visitors' early promise and Danny Grainger stunned Ibrox with a superb strike into the top left-hand corner of Allan McGregor's net from 25 yards out. Grainger had been allowed to collect a Jody Morris corner in a perfect illustration of how sluggish Rangers were during the opening period.

Their almost instant reply, then, was unforeseen and fortunate. Graeme Smith palmed Steven Naismith's header straight to the feet of Sasa Papac, whose tame shot should have been dealt with by Kevin Rutkiewicz. The St Johnstone defender, though, got himself into an almighty mess and bundled the ball over his own goal-line.

Beattie's theatrics while attempting to win a penalty – and have Michael Duberry dismissed – were ignored by the referee, Callum Murray, when a yellow card should have been issued to the former Stoke City striker. Weiss showed more admirable ingenuity with a curling attempt that went narrowly wide of a St Johnstone upright, a minute before the interval.

Jelavic's introduction, in place of the totally ineffectual Beattie, prompted the kind of reception normally afforded to national heroes. By that stage, Rangers had imposed themselves on proceedings without creating meaningful chances.

Weiss, as befitting someone of only 20, showed he is talented but also erratic. The Manchester City loanee's booking for dissent summed up the growing frustration. But Miller, in scoring his fifth goal in three games, lightened the mood. The Scotland striker took a pass from Lee McCulloch and brushed off Alan Maybury – illegally, St Johnstone felt – before slotting home.

St Johnstone 4-1 Rangers | Scottish Premier League match report

Old Firm teams losing four goals in a match is becoming an unlikely habit. Six days after Celtic capitulated 4-0 at St Mirren, the other of Scotland's top-flight Saints inflicted a 4-1 defeat on Rangers. There will be nothing like the fallout which followed that Celtic result – Tony Mowbray paying with the sack – but this served as a reminder that securing the Scottish Premier League may not be totally straightforward for Rangers.

Unless Celtic suffer at least one defeat in the meantime, Rangers cannot now clinch the title before the division's annual split. Their 10-point advantage remains intact, the only crumb of solace for Walter Smith after this result.

"It was a very disappointing night for us," the Rangers manager said. "St Johnstone looked keener than us, more aggressive than us. The first half especially was not good enough from our point of view."

Not since September 2007 had Rangers conceded four goals in the league. This was, then, the heaviest defeat in that competition since Smith returned as manager three years ago. It was also St Johnstone's first top-flight win against this opposition in a decade.

It would be disingenuous not to recognise the impressive attacking nature of St Johnstone's play, a characteristic of their first season back in the SPL. Nonetheless, Rangers contributed heavily to their own downfall, as their manager observed, with an error-prone display. Their night began poorly and faded.

The on-loan Celtic striker Cillian Sheridan scored the first goal of a rampant early spell from St Johnstone, a stunning angled volley after Danny Grainger's speculative long ball. Chris Millar promptly doubled their lead with a 30-yard shot which took a wild deflection off the Rangers defender David Weir on its way past Allan McGregor. Weir would have chosen a more auspicious moment to celebrate becoming the oldest player to represent Rangers in a competitive match, at almost 40.

Sasa Papac's angled finish seemed to haul Rangers back into the game, with Lee McCulloch and Steven Naismith passing up subsequent chances, but any visiting hope was ill-founded.

As Sheridan shot into the side-netting when attempting to restore St Johnstone's two-goal advantage, the widely held notion that Rangers are routinely involved in cagey domestic encounters had been blown to pieces.

This one was more open than was healthy for Smith, or any of his players. Liam Craig further exploited their defensive generosity with a header from Millar's cross which was again deflected, this time by McCulloch. Just days after Celtic's stunning capitulation in Paisley, their city rivals seemed on a mission to replicate that display. At the interval the visiting support had forgotten imminent championship glory to boo their players from the field.

Smith replaced Kris Boyd and Kevin Thomson during the interval, though by the manager's admission he "could have taken any of them off at half-time". Those changes did little to alter the game's flow. St Johnstone's fourth of the night was the simplest, the substitute Murray Davidson prodding home from close range after Michael Duberry had nodded a Grainger free-kick into his path.

Rangers 2-0 St Johnstone | Scottish League Cup semi-final report

Rangers's domestic treble quest remains firmly on schedule. They will meet St ­Mirren in the first major final of the season, the Co-operative Insurance Cup, on 21 March, after dismissing the challenge of St Johnstone last night.

Amid the financial troubles which have dogged Rangers this season, it is a continued credit to the playing squad that their domestic touch cannot be matched. If a clean sweep of honours can be achieved, it will rank among the more notable achievements in the Ibrox club's history given the turbulent backdrop.

"Winning a treble is never easy but this squad have been fantastic," said the Rangers manager Walter Smith. "We have a good spirit and determination. We are open to problems if injuries and suspensions kick in, because this is a small group. There has been tremendous stress on the players who have been asked to play in every game; we are in the middle of a run with five midweek games in a row."

Since Smith returned to the club in January 2007, he has guided his team to the final of each Scottish knockout tournament they have entered. "It still means the same to me, getting to cup finals," he said. "At the start of every season with the Old Firm you set out to win the domestic trophies."

The St Johnstone goalkeeper Graeme Smith had blocked a close-range shot from Steve Davis after a Nacho Novo pass but the former Fulham midfielder reacted smartly to send Rangers in front with the rebound, an angled volley.

St Johnstone's best opportunity during the first-half fell to Murray Davidson, who wastefully headed wide after a fine Gary Irvine cross. David Weir came closer, but to his own goal as the Rangers captain miscued a 36th-minute clearance.

Within seconds, Smith's men had doubled their lead. Lee McCulloch fired in a 20-yard shot which, albeit fierce, should have been blocked by Smith. There was no such intervention from the custodian, rendering the Perth team's hopes of clinching the League Cup for the first time in their history negligible before the interval.

St Johnstone had raised their game by the opening stages of the second period, without creating any meaningful chances. Rangers are far from generous opponents when ahead in any game but the SPL leaders failed to put the tie out of St Johnstone's reach 20 minutes from time. Steven Naismith allowed Smith to save his tame penalty after Irvine was harshly adjudged to have barged the Rangers substitute.

St Johnstone never seemed likely to capitalise on Naismith's profligacy. Another of Scotland's Saints stand between Rangers and reclaiming the trophy from Celtic.

St Johnstone 1-4 Celtic | Scottish Premier League match report

With a quarter of an hour left, this was another one of those afternoons for Tony Mowbray. The manager's aspirations of a Scottish Premier League title in his debut season at Celtic have been undermined to a large extent thus far by the team's inability to convert territorial dominance into goals. This time, though, Mowbray's men ultimately inflicted the sort of punishment which the manager is adamant has been threatening for weeks.

It is no exaggeration to suggest Celtic battered a 10-man St Johnstone in the second half here but, in a familiar scene, initially contrived to miss chances from positions few would think possible. Artur Boruc, the Celtic goalkeeper, will have had busier Sundays in front of his television.

Georgios Samaras, Marc-Antoine Fortuné and Pat McCourt ensured Mowbray this time had an end result. That, coupled with Rangers' home draw with Hearts on Saturday, meant the Ibrox team's lead at the summit of the Scottish Premier League had been cut to seven points.

"It is just another three points for us, every game is significant," said Mowbray afterwards. "I don't see this weekend as one where things have swung towards us."

Loovens had already played a part in St Johnstone's goal by hauling down Steven Milne inside the penalty area. Liam Craig did the rest from 12 yards in emphatic fashion.

Whether or not the dismissal of the hosts' Graham Gartland 20 seconds into the second period was pivotal, or Mowbray's half-time message had been more robust than ever, is unclear. What was striking is just how dominant Celtic were after Gartland departed having received a straight red card for dragging down the rampaging Samaras on the edge of the penalty area.

Aiden McGeady and Samaras missed glorious opportunities before Fortuné converted the most tricky of the lot with a fierce shot into the top corner of Graeme Smith's net. A Samaras volley from 12 yards edged the visitors in front before Smith spilled a McCourt shot, allowing Fortuné to slot home the rebound before McCourt supplied a goal of equal quality to Fortuné's first, again into the top corner from just inside the penalty area.

Celtic could have had more but, in the present climate, four goals and three points were welcome enough.

Man of the match Marc-Antoine Fortuné (Celtic)

Scottish Premier League: St Johnstone 1-2 Rangers

As Walter Smith stood by his assertion that Rangers should be operating in an environment other than the Scottish Premier League, one of his key players decided a Saturday lunchtime in Perth was not for him either.

Madjid Bougherra's failure to return anything like on time from playing a part in Algeria's World Cup qualifying victory over Rwanda eight days ago ensured he was a notable absentee at McDiarmid Park. It led to a rap on the knuckles from Smith during talks today; the only earlier explanation offered for Bougherra not arriving in Glasgow until just before midnight on Friday was that the defender's bag, which contained a passport and mobile phone, was stolen last Monday.

Smith will not have the luxury of punishing Bougherra further by leaving him out of the team for Tuesday's Champions League visit of Dan Petrescu's Unirea Urziceni. The visitors' makeshift central defence was exposed time and again by St Johnstone, whose bullish performance, coupled with Motherwell's scoreless draw at Celtic Park, belied the theory that the Old Firm have things all their own way.

Not that Smith is for changing his views. Rangers' manager attracted criticism last week for claiming his own side and Celtic have to seek pastures new in order to benefit themselves and the Scottish game. If the 61-year-old has broken an unwritten rule of knocking the brand from within, he has no intention of backtracking. "I am quite comfortable with what I said," he said. "If you feel you can talk up the game here, fine. If you can tell me I'm wrong and there is huge investment in Scottish football at the moment, including from television and sponsorship, then I would be delighted. Nobody would be happier than me if Scottish football was in a healthy state but I don't think that is the case. The longer we delude ourselves that it is, the less action will be taken."

Smith has Sasa Papac to thank for ensuring Rangers now hold a one-point lead at the top of the SPL. The Bosnian coolly curled home a late winner. Kris Boyd had earlier equalised the opener from St Johnstone's outstanding Collin Samuel.

Pedro Mendes did return on schedule from international duty with Portugal but with a thigh problem which makes him a doubt to face the Romanians.

Man of the match Collin Samuel

(St Johnstone)