FUMING Philippe Clement branded his Rangers flops ‘unacceptable’ after falling to defeat against St Mirren.
Caolan Boyd-Munce struck a 93rd minute winner to earn the Buddies a first league win over the Gers in 13 years.
26.12.2024 St Mirren v Rangers: Danilo and Ianis Hagi at full time[/caption]
It was a Boxing Day full of frustration for Clement and Rangers[/caption]
Rangers went into the game looking for a fifth consecutive league victory but instead fell to a costly defeat.
With Celtic thumping Motherwell 4-0 earlier on Boxing Day, it means the Light Blues now trail their fierce rivals by TWELVE points.
A horror first half showing from the Gers was compounded by a moment of madness from keeper Jack Butland, who wiped out Greg Kiltie and conceded a penalty.
Oisin Smyth sent Butland the wrong way and the Buddies had the lead.
Clement, who made four changes, sent on Nicolas Raskin and Danilo at the break and the latter made it 1-1 when he lashed home from close range after an hour.
But there was late, late drama to come as Caolan Boyd-Munce blasted a stunning strike into the bottom corner from distance to send the SMiSA Stadium wild.
It was a dreadful result for the Gers who face Motherwell on Sunday before hosting Celtic on 2 January.
Clement couldn’t hide his anger after the game as he branded his team’s performance unacceptable.
He accused the team of throwing away the first half and bemoaned the individual errors that led to both goals.
Clement told Premier Sports: “We threw away 45 minutes and you create your own problems because of that. So our first half was not acceptable. The way we played, our tempo in the duels, everything as a team was not good enough.
“And then you get also a goal against where you make a mistake to give away a penalty there.
“So a lot of things went wrong in this first half. So, I was angry at half time about what I saw in this first half. The reaction in the second half is good.
“The team showed what they’ve been showing in the last weeks, the last two months. Much more quality, getting the chances, creating the chances, scoring the goal. It should have been more.
“And then you have that one counter attack and you get a goal against at the end of the game.
“That can happen when you take so many risks like we did at the end of the game.
“We need to play games like we play in the second half. And then, then we have different results like we have in the last couple of weeks, but it’s about every three days.”
He continued: “Inconsistency is that it goes up and down, up and down. The team has been consistent the last two months, or even a little bit longer than that.
“But today the first half was not acceptable, was not good enough. Not only from the two players I took off, for all the team. I could’ve done more changes than two.”
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