Philippe Clement 'boiling' with Rangers injury rage as he spots St Johnstone tackle WORSE than Lundstram red card lunge
Diallang Jaiyesimi was sent off for injuring John Lundstram but Clement reckons that wasn't even the worst of St Johnstone's sins.
Philippe Clement admitted he was left BOILING after turning up the heat on Celtic at the top of the table.
The Rangers boss was thrilled to close the gap to just two points with a stress-free win over St Johnstone. But Clement was left livid at the x-rated tackle from Saints red card sinner Diallang Jaiyesimi that has left John Lundstram a massive down for next week's Old Firm showdown. And the Belgian was healing after branding a shuddering challenge from Dan Phillips as a leg breaker despite no card being dished out.
Clement’s frustration at some of the rougher sides of the Scottish game is rising and he said: “It’s another player who is kicked off the pitch, so I am really frustrated with that. This for me is my main concern after the game - again a player kicked off the pitch. I’m not sure we can get him back before the winter break so that’s not a good situation.
“I don’t want to go in on emotions after the game, I am a little boiling so it’s better to cool down and make opinions about leagues or whatever. But it clearly wasn’t a good challenge with your studs forward like that.
“We had an even worse one later in the game when the guy (Phillips) luckily hit the ball and not my player, the intensity there was to break a leg. Those things are not good for football. It’s his ankle so we will see in the next couple of days what will happen.”
Kemar Roofe also limited off after lasting just 14 minutes of his first start since October and Clement will assess the injury hit striker today. The Gers boss was fuming at some of the tackled but delighted with another three points to maintain the charge after a dream week at home and in Europe.
Sub Cyriel Dessers grabbed a first half opener just before the red card flashpoint. It took until James Tavernier’s late penalty to seal it with a second but Gers were dominant throughout as they moved to within two points of Celtic – with a game in hand.
Clement said: “We did a lot of things well.We had control of the game from the start until the end. It is not easy to play against ten men when they are so deep, with no space.
“We kept our organisation, my defenders stayed focused. We could have had more goals, a few good saves also. We were waiting for that second goal, it came late. But we kept on pushing to get the goal and we had enough chances to do that.
“We have a lot of games. We had a team that twice wrote history in four days and stayed focused. It would be easy to be satisfied, think the game would be easy and become sloppy. But they didn’t do that."
Saints boss Craig Levein has no complaints about the sending off – but didn’t agree with Clement’s assessment of the second challenge. I thought it was a red card in the morning game. If that happened to one of our players I’d be calling for a red. He went in with force and didn’t get the ball. I thought the other one was a good tackle.”
Levein wasn’t too down after his side battled with 10 men. He said: "There was lots of effort, concentration and running from my team that enabled us to get out with a 2-0 after being down to 10 men for more than an hour.
“We spoke at half time if they wanted to play, then play. It’s not easy with a man short but there were a couple of moments that we didn’t manage to make enough of. Rangers are in good form on the back of two great results and we could have crumbled going a goal and a man down.
“They showed great determination to keep the score what it was. I was disappointed not to get any points but there were positives."
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