St Johnstone 0-3 Rangers: Wright takes issue with first Anderson yellow

Steven Anderson (left) was booked twice in six minutes

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright disputed the first of Steven Anderson's two yellow cards during the 3-0 defeat by Rangers at McDiarmid Park.

Captain Anderson's initial booking came after he and Rangers skipper Bruno Alves were reprimanded by referee Don Robertson for tussling at a corner.

Anderson was cautioned for the second time for a tug on Alfredo Morelos.

"Steven Anderson at the corner is only leaning into Alves, which he's entitled to do," Wright told BBC Scotland.

"He's just backing into him and Alves tries to drag him to the ground. He pulls him round. Alves is the aggressor. Steven then walks to get back into position and, all right, bumps into Alves.

"The referee's saying it's aggressive behaviour. If that's aggressive behaviour, I think a lot of players will be in trouble.

"Second one, Steven gets wrong side, gives Morelos a chance to go down. I thought he went down easy all night. It's probably the right decision from the referee but the first one surely can't be a yellow card or we'll be dishing them out left, right and centre."

Carlos Pena scored twice from James Tavernier crosses, with Graham Dorrans rounding off the win.

Despite a second successive 3-0 loss, Wright felt his side had improved from the defeat by Aberdeen.

"Overall, I was happy with the performance," added the Northern Irishman. "It was a good response from the Aberdeen performance. Ultimately, it's a defeat and it's one we've got to learn from.

Wright was left disappointed with the result but saw improvement in his side

"It's not a 3-0, I thought we were very good. Their only opportunity in the first half is a decent cross which we should've dealt with better.

"We got into really good positions, got in behind them. Our final ball let us down all night. We must have been well into double digits in corners, so that tells you we were on the front foot and we were putting them under pressure but we lacked that bit of quality in the final third and that killer touch that would've given us a goal at 1-0.

"We probably deserved to be back in the game.

"For 70 minutes, I thought we probably edged the game overall but the sending-off killed us really. Good players, space then go on and create more opportunities and 3-0 probably flatters them a little bit.

"At 1-0, with the sending-off, it totally changes."