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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Ben Ramage

Marcus Fraser makes Rangers penalty admission as St Mirren defender says he 'let the boys down'

Marcus Fraser felt he let his Buddies down by gifting Rangers the perfect chance to equalise from the penalty spot.

Especially as he believes a spot kick was the only way Gio van Bronckhorst's stuttering side were going to score against St Mirren after a superb defensive performance looked set to earn them another impressive Old Firm victory.

Leading through Jonah Ayunga's close-range effort on Saturday afternoon, the clock was ticking down on the Ibrox side before Fraser got too tight to Ryan Kent as he burst into the Saints' box.

The defender thought he'd got away with the challenge initially, but VAR told referee Kevin Clancy to take another look with the decision eventually overturned.

That led to James Tavernier levelling from the spot, with gutted Fraser telling Renfrewshire Live Sport after full-time: "I think I went a wee bit sheepish [after the challenge].

"Listen, Kent is sharp and I kind of went in too fast. I tried to stop and we clashed knee on knee. I knew when the referee went over to the monitor he was probably going to give it.

"I am disappointed in myself. I feel as if I have let the boys down a wee bit as I don’t think we were going to concede at all, to be honest.

"I will take it on the chin. I walked up to the halfway line and let everybody else do the talking. At the end of the day the referee is going to make the decision and it can go to the monitor now.

"I was obviously disappointed with myself and for the team. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t. Obviously you need to be careful with those kind of challenges.

"During the game, Trevor Carson had a save in the first half and a save in the second half. Other than that, I think we had total control over our box.

"There weren’t many shots at our goal, we were comfortable. That was the only way they were going to score a goal.”

Fraser insists St Mirren went into Saturday's clash fully confident they could pick up three points against Rangers, just as they did against their Glasgow rivals Celtic in September.

Despite having to make do with a point, the experienced 28-year-old believes the Paisley club's mentality has strengthened in recent years.

He insists they fear no-one now, adding: "I think over the game we were good in and out of possession. We might not have had a lot of possession, but when we did we put it into wide areas and got in behind their back four.

"We did that most of the day. We created a decent number of opportunities. We can be happy with ourselves.
“There is a belief throughout the full club now. You could sense it in the dressing room. It was like a normal game for us. We knew what we had to do going into it.

"We started well and in the second-half we put them under pressure at throw-ins and corner kicks and got the goal.

"Rangers had a lot of possession but the chances they created were kept to a minimum.
"That's because of the way we play and the belief we got from the fans was incredible. We believe on that pitch we're going to win every game."

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