Nathan Lowndes deprived Rangers of victory at McDiarmid Park just as Tony Vidmar had again looked to have emerged the Ibrox outfit's unlikely saviour.

Having been on the field for barely a minute, Lowndes struck in the 86th minute when it appeared Rangers had overcome the loss of skipper Lorenzo Amoruso and a missed Jorg Albertz penalty.

Amoruso will have a scan today to establish the seriousness of an ankle injury collected after a nasty accidental clash with his own team-mate Craig Moore.

That 27th-minute incident compounded Rangers' misery as the usually reliable Albertz had seen a spot-kick saved by St Johnstone goalkeeper Alan Main five minutes earlier.

Rangers remained frustrated until the 58th minute when Vidmar, who has proved an unexpected source of important goals this term, produced his best yet of a productive campaign. His superb left-foot curler was one of the few moments of quality in a bad-tempered match.

However, Lowndes' late goal means Rangers' lead over Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premier League is now eight points which maintains the Parkhead club's slim title aspirations.

After 22 minutes Albertz played in Gordon Durie who looked to have taken the ball too wide when he was upended by Main, a needless challenge resulting in a clear penalty. Albertz assumed responsibility but by his standards his shot was tame and too close to Main, who dived low to his left to save.

Eventually Rangers found the breakthrough in stunning fashion. The ball looked to have drifted harmlessly away from goal when it reached Vidmar, who spun expertly before curling a fierce shot into the top right-hand corner of the net.

That 58th-minute strike increased the tempo of proceedings and after a late Darren Dods challenge on Neil McCann several players became involved in the aftermath and St Johnstone manager Sandy Clark was spoken to after the incident.

But in the 86th minute St Johnstone hit back just as their hopes looked to have faded, Danny Griffin's free-kick finding Lowndes via Graeme Jones' touch and he made no mistake.

In injury-time Lowndes almost went one better as he seized a poor backpass by Arthur Numan, but after rounding Stefan Klos he fired into the side-netting.

St Johnstone: Main, Frail, Dods, Weir, Bollan, O'Neil (Lowndes 85), Kane, Griffin, McBride (McCluskey 90), O'Halloran (Jones 69), Connolly. Subs Not Used: Ferguson, Lauchlan. Booked: Main, Frail, McBride, Dods, Griffin. Goals: Lowndes 86.

Rangers: Klos, Numan, Moore, Amoruso (Nicholson 30), Vidmar, Albertz, Van Bronckhorst, Ferguson, Kanchelskis (McCann 53), Wallace, Durie. Subs Not Used: Charbonnier, Rozental, Tugay. Booked: Durie. Goals: Vidmar 58.

Referee: John Underhill (Scotland).