Rangers grind out St. Johnstone win to close on Aberdeen

Rangers cut the gap on second-placed Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership to seven points after winning 1-0 at St Johnstone thanks to Jason Holt's own goal on Sunday.

Aberdeen are now winless in three after they were held 1-1 by bottom-of-the-table Hearts.

Rangers were rampant in a 4-1 win over Nice in the Europa League on Thursday.

But Philippe Clement's men have often saved their best for Europe this season and again laboured against domestic opposition on the road.

Rangers had only scored twice in five away league games prior to the trip to McDiarmid Park and needed the hosts to find the net for them early in the second half.

Holt could only turn the ball into his own net from Ianis Hagi's looping cross with the midfielder under pressure from James Tavernier.

"It was a good performance today, only thing we missed is to score the second, third or fourth goal to finish off the game earlier and to kill the belief with the opponent, which we did well against Nice," said Clement.

"It's a little bit annoying because it's a few weeks that I have had to repeat that."

Victory cut Rangers' gap on Celtic to 11 points.

Aberdeen have the daunting task of stopping the leaders on Wednesday with the Dons beginning to run out of steam after a stunning start to the season.

Leighton Clarkson put Aberdeen in front at Tynecastle, but Musa Drammeh salvaged a draw for the Edinburgh side after the break.

A point is not enough to move Hearts off the foot of the table as they remain two adrift of city rivals Hibernian.