Derek McInnes asked his Rangers side to be “brilliant” against St Johnstone and was rewarded with a 4-0 William Hill Premiership win at Ibrox.
After dropping two points at Dundee last weekend, the Light Blues dominated the first half but only led at the interval through a goal in the 29th minute from Venezuela forward Kevin Kelsy.
Saints started the second half brightly but goals from Gers striker Ryan Naderi in the 61st minute and Kelsy again five minutes later had the home side in easy street.
Saints substitute Kai Fotheringham was shown a straight red card by referee Chris Graham in the 74th minute for his high challenge on midfielder Nico Raskin, before substitute Tochi Chukwuani added a fourth for the hosts with three minutes remaining.
McInnes said: “It’s quite ironic in the sense that we were so good and so brilliant at times in the first half and create so many opportunities, that we were only a goal to the good at half-time.
“And obviously, we don’t want to let the frustration of those missed opportunities and dominance filter into the second half.
“I think half-time came at a bad time for us because, despite the conditions, some of the play was really good.
“I asked the players to be brilliant today, not just win the game, can we really commit to being the best we can be, as good as we can be?
“And I thought we were in the first half. Everything was brilliant except the result at half-time because we should have been more in in front.
“We have no divine right to expect, to get, a 90-odd minute dominant performance, St Johnstone are a good side in their own right and they’re doing well so.
“But (it’s) ironic we score three goals second half when we were weren’t as polished and as clean with our work.
“But our two strikers still contribute and (Djeidi) Gassama’s created a brilliant opportunity for Tochi at the end.
“To score three goals in a second half where we weren’t as good, in the first half we were completely dominant and very good and we only get the one.
“So there’s lots of learnings for us here, but I actually think that you get your strikers scoring goals, (a) clean sheet and another win just chalked off on what was was a horrible day for everybody, it was just important that we won the game. ”
St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari had “no complaints about the result” and bemoaned the good chance missed by Josh Fowler in the first half.
He said: “Rangers were very strong in the first half. They put us under a lot of pressure and got their goal.
“For 15 minutes in the second half we had momentum at 1-0 down.
“The logic of the situation is that if you don’t take your chances the top teams will score, which they did.
“You can’t ask for better chances than the ones we got in this match. You’ve got to hit the target and ask questions of the goalkeeper.
“That’s the biggest disappointment we have from this match.”
