Early-bird Boyd shoots down St Mirren

GLASGOW (AFP) - Rangers survived a late scare to secure a narrow 2-1 win over St Mirren at Ibrox that moved them up to second in the Scottish Premier League and cut Celtic's advantage at the top.

It looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for the Buddies after Kris Boyd fired Rangers into the lead after just 18 seconds but the Paisley side were unlucky not to equalise before the SPL top-scorer got his second in the 57th minute.

St Mirren were never out of the game, however, and pulled a fine goal back with just two minutes remaining through substitute Stephen O'Donnell.

With Celtic not playing Falkirk until Sunday the win puts pressure on Tony Mowbray's side and cuts their lead in the race for the championship to just one point.

St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson was left to rue his team's start.

"That's the worst possible start you can have, but credit to them the way they came back after that," he said.

"When you lose goals like that it's always going to be difficult."

His opposite number Walter Smith said Rangers had squandered quite a few opportunities after a whirlwind start.

"Overall we are delighted to win the game but it was obviously a bit closer than I would have hoped, especially after a better second half than we had in the first half," he said.

"When we got the second goal we could have gone on and scored two or three after that as we had some good chances but missed them."

Earlier, Hearts and Hibernian shared the spoils after the first Edinburgh derby of the season ended in a drab goalless draw.

The home side enjoyed the majority of possession but Hibs came closest to taking all three points when David Wotherspoon's effort flicked off team-mate Colin Nish and was touched against the post by Hearts goalkeeper Janos Balogh.

Hibs slipped from second place to third after Rangers' victory over St Mirren, while Hearts ended the day eighth.

"I can only say again and again and again, if you don't score goals, you don't ever win a game," said frustrated Hearts coach Csaba Laszlo after his side's third consecutive game without scoring.

"We had about 11 or 12 corners. This tells you everything."

Hibs boss John Hughes, meanwhile, was happy to escape with a point.

"I'll take a point with the way we played," he said.

"Not to be at your best and to come here and take a point, I think it shows good signs."

Walter Smith made three changes to the Rangers side that drew with Unirea Urziceni in Wednesday's Champions League clash by bringing in Boyd, Nacho Novo and John Fleck.

And Boyd, who didn't even make it off the bench in Romania, showed his manager what he had been missing when he scored one of the fastest goals of the season straight from kick-off.

The one-time Scotland international started the move when he headed the ball on to Steven Naismith, who in turn played in Fleck.

The teenager's rocket shot fell into the path of Novo who knocked it to Boyd with his knee and the striker fired it into the net from four yards.

Boyd notched his second of the game in the 57th minute after an error by Steven Thomson, who held onto the ball for too long on the edge of his own box and allowed Fleck to rob him of possession.

Substitute DaMarcus Beasley picked up the loose ball and played in Novo, whose pass across the six-yard box was knocked in by Boyd.

The Scottish striker was hungry for a hat-trick and crashed a header off the bar with Gallacher beaten minutes later.

St Mirren made the final moments difficult for Rangers when they pulled one back through substitute Stephen O'Donnell in the 88th minute as he converted Billy Mehmet's cross from six yards.

Elsewhere, Dundee United won 2-0 away to Kilmarnock, Aberdeen defeated St Johnstone 2-1 and Motherwell and Hamilton drew 2-2.

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