On a day when Ibrox was bathed in remembrance, helping to repair the image tarnished by fans from whom fighting in a far-off foreign field had nothing to do with valour, Kris Boyd blew away the solemnity on Saturday with almost indecent haste.
An impeccable minute’s silence for those who died in two world wars was jettisoned after just 19 seconds when the Rangers striker found the net, to an explosion of noise from all four sides of the ground. For the fans holding up the banner declaring “Boyd must stay and Boyd must play — home and away”, it must have seemed like manna from heaven.
Their hero had made their point. “Support our heroes” was the theme of the day at Ibrox, with that message printed upon special scarves sold by the club along with “Lest we forget”. Rangers even had two servicemen making the half-time draw, before Boyd added another goal in the second half to take his total for the season to seven. That all his goals have come in domestic football goes without saying.
Boyd did not play in the Champions League draw with Unirea Urziceni in Bucharest on Wednesday when Rangers fans fought with Romanian stewards. He never plays in Europe. Yet again, he sat on the bench. Yet again, he was restored to the team for the Clydesdale Bank Premier League encounter and, yet again, he displayed the ruthless touch that merely contributes to his enigma status.
Walter Smith decided a long time ago that Boyd would not be part of his team plan in European competition, just as he knows that the striker is the first name on his team sheet as soon as that plane lands on home soil.
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Expendable. Dependable. Boyd fills both roles. Yet he must feel as self-conscious as non-conscripts did during the war. Unlike the soldiers at half-time, Boyd is unlikely to see active service overseas. However, no matter how many banners tell the Rangers manager that Boyd ought to be in the Champions League line-up, Smith’s tactics will be shaped around other personnel.
For as long as the manager goes with 4-5-1, then Boyd will continue to take a back seat. And yet, it is hard to argue with Smith’s judgment in European away games, given that Rangers drew in Germany against Stuttgart and were two minutes away from a win in Romania.
Indeed, if Smith required any further evidence to strengthen his conviction, then it was there in black and white at Ibrox. St Mirren were doing a very good job of impersonating Rangers abroad after losing that ridiculously early goal — after Paul Gallacher palmed out John Fleck’s shot straight to the feet of Boyd — with a 4-5-1 set-up that would have gained Smith’s endorsement.
The robust Billy Mehmet may have been left in the lone striking role, but he found plenty of support from Andy Dorman, who not only made telling breaks from midfield but found pockets of space in front of the Rangers defence in which to operate, as Gus MacPherson’s team moved the ball around with such precision that even Smith was an admirer.
Had Allan McGregor not beaten away one 35-yard strike from Dorman and another netbound effort from Mehmet, or been rescued by the inside of his post when Garry Brady curled a sublime shot beyond the goalkeeper, then things might have been different.
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However, MacPherson’s ambitions were radically altered when Stephen McGinn had to be withdrawn because of a back injury early in the second half and he was replaced by Michael Higdon, the striker. St Mirren may have had a 4-4-2 but they were nowhere near as effective.
Boyd struck again in the 56th minute, sweeping in a cross from Nacho Novo after the persistent Fleck harried Steven Thomson into an error, and Rangers should then have killed the contest but squandered chances, until St Mirren’s other substitute, Stephen O’Donnell, deftly lobbed McGregor to set up a nervous end for the hosts.
“It was anxious at the end,” Smith said. “It was a lot closer than I had hoped. We had a great start with Kris Boyd’s goal but St Mirren were the better team in the first half and Allan McGregor had to make some good saves to keep us in front.”
Smith explained that Rangers were deprived of three players — Kevin Thomson, Steven Smith and Kyle Lafferty — who were all struck down by a sickness bug in Bucharest.
“When you go away for the European games, you always have a problem, especially when we lost three players to a bug they picked up in Romania,” the manager said. “So we were pleased to come back and win the game.”
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MacPherson, in contrast, only had to travel just a few miles down the M8 to encounter the thing that plagues St Mirren — Boyd. “He scored against us very early in the Scottish Cup semi-final last season and if you allow him that sort of space, you’ll get punished,” the St Mirren manager said.
Rangers (4-4-2): A McGregor 8 S Whittaker 7 D Weir 7 D Wilson 7 S Papac 6 J Fleck 6 S Davis 8 L McCulloch 6 S Naismith 6 K Boyd 8 N Novo 5 Substitutes D Beasley 4 (for Whittaker, 46min), K Miller (for Novo, 86). Not used: N Alexander, J Rothen, S Stirling, K Hutton, J Ness.
St Mirren (4-5-1): P Gallacher 6 J Ross6 J Potter 6 C Innes 5 D Barron 7 H Murray 6 S Thomson 6 A Dorman 8 G Brady 7 S McGinn 7 B Mehmet 7 Substitutes C Higdon 5 (for McGinn, 48min), S O’Donnell (for Thomson, 70). Not used: M Howard, M McLennan, R Devlin, C Ramsay.
Referee: I Brines. Attendance: 45,750