Naderi's penalty and sharper chances carried Rangers past St Mirren

Rangers won 2-0 at the SMiSA Stadium with fewer shots than usual but far better chances, while ST Mirren held more of the ball.

Ryan Naderi gave Rangers the lead from the penalty spot in the 18th minute, and that early goal shaped everything after it. Dan Neil added a second in the 61st minute, and from there Rangers had the match where they wanted it. The score said more about chances than about possession, and the numbers behind it are worth working through.

ST Mirren had 56% of the ball, well above the 49.2% they usually hold at home, so the early possession was theirs. The question is what they made of it. They took 11 shots, close to their usual 11.7, but their expected goals, a rough measure of how good each chance was where 1 would mean a goal every time, came to 1.11 against a usual 1.27.

Rangers were the reverse. They had 44% of the ball, down on the 56.6% they average away from home, and they took 16 shots compared with their usual 19.1. Fewer efforts, but better ones: 13 of those shots came from inside the box, and their expected goals reached 3.32 against a normal 2.06 on their travels.

St Mirren's goalkeeper J. Chapman was the busier of the two keepers, making five saves. The home defence was also tested in a way it does not normally face, because St Mirren usually concede 1.88 expected goals at home, and Rangers' chances went well beyond that. Rangers' I. Pandur made four saves at the other end, and his side conceded nothing, after a usual 0.8 goals a match away from home.

Dan Neil's goal was the second of the night, and he finished the game with the highest rating on the record for either side, an 8. He had one shot on target and won six duels, the small contests for the ball that decide who keeps it. K. Phillips won ten duels for St Mirren, more than anyone else in the player list, but his side could not turn that work into a chance that troubled the visitors.

In the table, St Mirren sit eighth with 14 points from 12 matches, and they have lost four of their last six. Rangers are second on 24 points from 11, and they have won four of their last six without a defeat in that spell. Neil's goal and a clean sheet fit that pattern, since Rangers now have the better of the two records on the road.

Rangers have scored 19 times in their 11 league matches and conceded nine, which leaves them second in a table where St Mirren are eighth. For a side that had fewer shots than usual, the 2-0 was built on a penalty and on the quality of what they created. That is the finding from the SMiSA Stadium on this November evening.

Player of the matchD. Neil1 goal8.0

O. Makhanya6 duels won7.3

I. Pandur4 saves7.3

N. Raskin3 chances created7.2