Lindsay Herron reporting from Ibrox

JEAN-CLAUDE Darcheville put on a master class in forward play when he inspired Rangers to a comfortable win that consolidates their lead at the top of the SPL.

The power and pace of Daniel Cousin may have gone but the speed and invention of Darcheville was entirely prevalent at Ibrox.

Ally McCoist had predicted that The Rocket was ready to explode and he was proved right on this performance.

He was at the heart of everything Rangers did as they won easily with goals from Chris Burke, Kris Boyd and a double from Stevie Whittaker.

St Mirren were first to pose a real threat when they came close to catching Rangers out in nine minutes.

Ian Maxwell found space on the left side 35 yards out and had time to measure a cross into the box and Billy Mehmet was onto it in a flash flicking a header for the bottom right corner forcing Allan McGregor to make an excellent one-handed save.

It was an excellent piece of goal-keeping from McGregor but the fact that Mehmet had the chance was clearly alarming.

The St Mirren striker forced McGregor into another save, albeit slightly easier, in 24 minutes when Alan Hutton's attempted clearance was deflected into his path and he drove a low right foot shot straight at the Rangers keeper.

Rangers had shown some intent in 20 minutes most notably through Jean-Claude Darcheville who was to have an increasing influence on the match.

His speed forced Will Haining into pulling him back just outside the box to concede a free kick and earn a yellow card.

Barry Ferguson tried a low shot around the wall with the dead ball but Chris Smith was equal to it.

Six minutes later a touch of class from the skipper led to Rangers taking the lead and from that moment they never looked back.

Darcheville was involved playing a short pass to Ferguson who had made the angle on the left side of the box.

Ferguson then fooled Andy Dorman with a feint to his left and delivered a cross to the back post where Chris Burke was waiting to drive a low shot into the net.

No wonder the little winger celebrated - it was his first goal in over a year having scored in Walter Smith's first game back, the 5-0 win over Dundee United on January 13, 2007.

Boyd should have scored in 28 minutes when Darcheville burst clear on the right and clipped over a tempting cross but, with the goal gaping, Boyd headed over the bar.

Rangers' leading marksman made amends four minutes later but by that time Saints were down to 10 men when Haining was dismissed for a second yellow card when he brought down Hutton on the half-hour.

Gus Macpherson's side where still trying to re-organise when Darcheville produced a great pass to tee up Boyd in the left channel and he drove a low shot into the right corner to claim his 60^th Rangers goal.

Poor Saints lost a third goal in 37 minutes and the game really was over from that point.

Steven Whittaker was the scorer, taking a Brahim Hemdani pass and drilling a low left foot shot into the right corner.

Darcheville showed no signs of letting Saints off the hook in the early moments of the second half and he was at the heart of everything Rangers did in a positive sense,

His terrific awareness should have resulted in another goal in 59 minutes.

The former Bordeaux man played a great ball for Burke inside the box and all he had to do was cut it back for a simple Boyd tap-in.

Instead he tried to bend one in with the outside of his right boot but missed the target.

Darcheville then made way for Stevie Naismith, perhaps with Wednesday's CIS Cup semi-final in mind, but the chances still fell to Rangers.

Boyd was given a clear sight of goal in 63 minutes but Smith made a good blocking save then Burke missed the target with a left foot strike.

Rangers' top scorer had another opportunity in 68 minutes when Hutton flicked on Burke's cross but he could not get enough power on his header and Smith saved.

Not surprisingly Lee McCulloch was introduced in 71 minutes, coming on for Adam, and then Nacho Novo got the last 12 minutes replacing Burke.

However, Rangers were not quite finished with the Love Street side.

Whittaker grabbed a quite excellent second goal in 80 minutes following a quite excellent move.

Ferguson started it with a quick ball forward for Naismith who turned away from Dorman and found Boyd in space. The striker unselfishly played the ball wide for Whittaker who cut inside David Barron and drilled a right foot shot high into right corner.

It was as comfortable an afternoon as Rangers have had all season.