Andrew Dickson reports from Ibrox

WALTER SMITH paid tribute to his Rangers players for grinding out a win against St Mirren after the high of beating Celtic last week.

It was perhaps always going to be tough to get over the euphoric reaction to the derby success and turn in another polished performance so soon.

That certainly proved to be the case at Ibrox today when the Buddies went in front through on-loan Celtic player Graham Carey.

Lee McCulloch's goals either side of half-time and Nacho Novo's late clincher eventually gave the champions another three points as they bid to retain the SPL.

They've consequently gone 13 points clear and just seven more victories from their final 11 league games would be enough to keep the title in Govan.

It wasn't the most exciting afternoon for the Light Blues but according to Smith, the biggest thing for them was that they won.

He said: "It was always going to be a difficult match for us today after the Old Firm game last week.

"Everyone disappeared on international duty after that one and didn't come back until Thursday or Friday.

"That's a tough thing for all of the clubs to deal with and as an ex-international manager, it's something I know people complain about.

"I was a little bit concerned today that the break would affect us and you have to give credit to St Mirren as they were well organised and set their stall out well.

"They made it difficult for us and once they went into the lead, I was worried we wouldn't get back into the game.

"Thankfully we got a goal back then went into a lead just after half-time, missed an opportunity after that and finished well.

"After we got our third, I was delighted as we had a spell in the last 10 minutes when St Mirren opened up a bit and we were good.

"We hit the post twice and hit the bar so I'm pleased with the win. The players know there's a fair amount of football to be played but they dug in today.

"I must say we've got a lot of resilience in our side. We may lack a number of things but that is not one for them.

"The players showed a good reaction this afternoon to going a goal down and taking all things into account, I was delighted with them."