Rangers on brink of title win after beating St Mirren

Rangers edged closer to their first Scottish Premiership title in ten years after beating St Mirren 3-0 at Ibrox.

Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos struck within the space of two minutes to give Rangers a 2-0 lead at half-time and Romania midfielder Ianis Hagi added a third soon after the restart.

Steven Gerrard’s side have moved 21 points clear of Celtic, who will relinquish their Scottish crown to their arch-rivals if they fail to win at Dundee United on Sunday.

Rangers maintained their 100 per cent home league record this season, while St Mirren stay in sixth place after their first defeat in five matches.

Hibernian missed the chance to close the gap on Celtic as they lost 1-0 at St Johnstone.

Saints, who lifted the Scottish League Cup last week, sit two points behind St Mirren after Liam Craig’s curling effort sent Hibs spinning to back-to-back defeats.

Aberdeen were held to a goalless home draw by Hamilton and have now won only two of their last 13 league games. The point lifted the visitors off the foot of the table.

Motherwell moved nine points clear of the bottom two thanks to Devante Cole’s double in a 3-1 home win against Livingston.

Cole’s penalty after Matej Poplatnik’s challenge on Robbie Crawford gave Motherwell a half-time lead.

Cole struck his second just before the hour-mark and although the visitors responded through Jack Fitzwater’s header a minute later, Chris Long restored Motherwell’s two-goal advantage.

Ross County boosted their hopes of survival with a 3-2 home win against Kilmarnock, who drop into bottom place after their winless run was extended to 10 matches.

County striker Billy Mckay cancelled out Kyle Lafferty’s first goal for Kilmarnock before half-time and scored his second after Leo Fuhr Hjelde’s effort to put his side 3-1 up.

Lafferty converted a second-half penalty after Keith Watson’s foul on Greg Kiltie, but it was not enough and the visitors ended with 10 men following Ross Millen’s second yellow card in time added on.