CRAIG SAMSON has accused a ‘disrespectful’ Daniel Candeias of lacking class after a dramatic finale to Rangers’ win over St Mirren on Saturday.

The Portuguese stepped off the bench to break the deadlock with just ten minutes remaining in Paisley before Alfredo Morelos clinched the victory in injury time.

Candeias was booked for celebrating his strike and then picked up a second yellow from referee Willie Collum in the aftermath of the decisive Gers goal.

Boss Steven Gerrard was bemused and angry with the decision but Buddies keeper Samson had words with the winger and reckons Candeias has to take some of the blame following an incident with Anton Ferdinand.

Samson said: “I was asking him to stop being so disrespectful, to be honest.

“When they scored the second goal he ran past and gave Anton a bit of stick, telling him to ‘shoosh’ and blowing him kisses.

“So when he ran past me I just sort of grabbed him and said, ‘look, there’s no need to be so disrespectful…you’ve won the game so just go and celebrate with your team-mates.’ To be honest, he agreed with me, and he apologised.

“But Anton wasn’t very happy with what was happening. I don’t know what happened between the two of them but I just thought Candeias was lacking a wee bit of class in doing what he was doing.

“If he scored from a cross, and then he goes and celebrates the second goal like that, I thought it was a bit disappointing.

“I’ve got no idea why he got a second yellow card. All I know is, you don’t need to act like he was, rubbing it in and showing a complete disrespect to your opponents.

“Anton obviously wasn’t happy because of it. I don’t know what the two of them said to each other to actually make Candeais get sent off, but there was no need for him to do what he did.

“He had already won the game – just go and shake hands. You don’t need to rub it in like that.”

St Mirren were on course for a shock share of the spoils before the late drama that clinched all three points for Gerrard’s side amid horrendous conditions at the Simply Digital Arena.

The Buddies remain second bottom of the Premiership standings after another top flight defeat but Samson reckons the outcome could have been different against the Light Blues.

He said: “I don’t think we ran out of gas. I think Allan McGregor won them the game. In the first half I thought the saves he made were absolutely brilliant.

“Then the conditions in the second half made it difficult for us to get out. If it had been 2-0 at half-time to us I don’t think that would have been unjust.

“But Greegsy has made some terrific saves for them to keep them in the game, and then in the second half, in the tough conditions, we were sort of camped in.

“But we had a game-plan. We knew we were going to be under the cosh a lot but I thought what we did today is what we need to take into other matches.

“We had desire and we backed each other up. We defended well – even if we didn’t have a great threat at the other end – but we had a lot of heart and desire and I think we were unfortunate to lose the match.”