BBC Scotland's Martin Dowden at McDiarmid Park

Chris Kane bemoaned missing chances in his first St Johnstone start in nearly 20 months but believes his team's performance in their 2-0 home defeat by Rangers was more sign of progress.

"We're a right good squad now," the striker told BBC Scotland. "We were a bit bare at the start of the season, loads of injuries, but injuries are coming back, boys we've brought in, we're all getting fitness.

"The manager has got loads to choose from and I think we showed against Celtic we can compete against the better teams. We just need to keep ourselves fit, keep ourselves going, have a good week's training and, as these games come, we will start picking up points."

As for his own return, Kane said: "It's been close to 20 months now since my last start. I'm delighted with how I'm progressing.

"I feel fit, I feel good and obviously I've had loads of bounce games, but my first start here, to get 80 minutes and to come out of it feeling good, I'm delighted with that."

Kane believes his side improved after going into the break 1-0 behind against Rangers.

"I thought we came out and played well - we had loads of chances ourselves," he said. "I had a great chance at 1-0 to level it and there were chances after that.

"Obviously we're disappointed, but I think we can look at the positives and take quite a lot from it.

"Obviously you don't expect to have all of the ball against Rangers. We knew it would be a game when we had to just wait our time and just try and create chances and defend well and I think we did do that."