Rangers manager Walter Smith claims he is in the dark as much as anyone else over Madjid Bougherra's failure to return from international duty on time for today's Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash with St Johnstone.

Smith has yet to make contact with the defender, although he has been informed Bougherra arrived back in the country around 11pm last night.

The centre-half failed to report for training with the rest of the squad at Murray Park this week after helping Algeria to a win over Rwanda last Sunday, meaning he did not make the trip to Perth with the rest of his Rangers team-mates.

When quizzed about Bougherra's absence after the 2-1 win at McDiarmid Park, Smith insisted he was just as baffled by the situation.

"I haven't spoken to him," he said.

"He didn't arrive back until late last night so I will speak to him tomorrow and I will be able to update you. Actually, I would be quite pleased if I could update myself.

"I will have to find out what his problem is. He may be ill, I don't know. It's a strange one for us because normally you are able to phone people up."

Asked if having players go AWOL ahead of matches was frustrating for him as a manager, Smith replied: "It's a little bit of a problem, isn't it?"

Pedro Mendes was also absent from the 18-man squad today but the explanation for the Portugal international's omission was more straightforward.

"He has a thigh strain," said Smith.

"He returned home, he's a nice lad Mendes, he's a good boy. He is back and I'm hopeful he will be okay for Tuesday's Champions League game, although he is a doubt."

Rangers were fortunate to return to Ibrox with the three points which sent them back to the summit of the SPL ahead of Celtic's meeting with Motherwell.

Collin Samuel gave the home side a well-deserved lead before Kris Boyd restored parity for the Scottish champions shortly before half-time.

Saints then passed up opportunities to reclaim their advantage before Sasa Papac claimed the decisive goal late on.

"We were pleased to win the game," said Smith.

"It was the type of game I thought we would get here, they will always be competitive, and we had to work hard to get the win.

"The performance was patchy, we've not had a great deal of consistency since the start of the season.

"For us getting back-to-back wins was a big thing because we have struggled to do that this season so we are happy to achieve that."

The strike was Papac's first goal of the season and Smith added: "It was a good finish. He has started to get himself a bit further forward this season and it was a very good finish from him today and it was a pleasing win for us."

St Johnstone assistant manager Tony Docherty admitted his players were dejected in the dressing room afterwards.

He said: "The 90 minutes wasn't frustrating - what was frustrating and disappointing was not getting anything but the performance level was very good.

"The boys are just gutted to have put so much into the game and to come away with nothing. We merited at least a point.

"Credit to Rangers, who keep going for the winner, but our camp is disappointed. It's a little unjust just now that we haven't been picking up the points for our performances but we will look ahead to the next game now."