Steven Gerrard, the Rangers manager, admitted “nobody did the shirt justice” in a poor first-half display at St Johnstone before a double from Alfredo Morelos gave his side a dramatic late victory. The Colombian forward snatched the win two minutes from time to take the Ibrox club to within a point of Celtic at the top of the Premiership.

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“The first half wasn’t good enough,” Gerrard said. “Nobody did the shirt justice, nobody looked like a Rangers player to me.

“I had to have the honest conversation with them at half-time , I had to tell them what all the fans thought of them because you could hear their reaction at the end of the first half.

“ my job is to let them know what the fans think and it’s my job to demand more out of them and we got a major reaction in the second half. Every single player to a man stood up to be counted.”

A shot-shy Rangers had toiled through the first half in Perth and Matty Kennedy put Tommy Wright’s team in front on the stroke of half-time. But Gerrard brought on Kyle Lafferty to partner Morelos early in the second period and the pressure eventually paid off as the Colombian pounced twice to take his tally for the season to 19 and Rangers back up to second.

Rangers’ lack of attacking threat had been a worry to Gerrard following a spell that had seen his side manage only one goal from open play in their previous seven games.

After a promising start, St Johnstone got a goal they thoroughly deserved after Scott Tanser’s cross bounced off Connor Goldson’s head and landed at Kennedy’s feet. Andy Halliday bought his dummy as the former Kilmarnock and Cardiff striker cut inside to lash into the roof of the net.

Gerrard took off Albanian Eros Grezda at the break after an ineffectivene half from the Albanian, replacing him with youngster Glenn Middleton. Lafferty was then added to the mix at Lassana Coulibaly’s expense after 11 more blunt minutes.

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In the 65th minute Gerrard finally got the reaction he was looking for, however. Goldson sprayed the ball wide to the Middleton and the winger immediately made for the byline before crossing into the six-yard box where Morelos headed home. And, finally, the Colombian got in front of his marker to fire a James Tavernier cross past Zander Clark to seal victory.