Goals from Mohamed Diomande and Vaclav Cerny secured a 2-1 victory for Rangers against St Mirren after suffering defeat in their last Scottish Premiership outing against Kilmarnock.
A lacklustre start from Philippe Clement’s side was almost punished by Toyosi Olusanya inside 10 minutes but the striker’s effort flew just wide of the post.
The hosts reacted immediately and took the lead through Diomande, who was on hand to poke the ball home after Ellery Balcombe parried a long-range effort from Connor Barron back into his own penalty area.
Mohamed Diomande celebrates scoring to make it 1-0 against St Mirren
St Mirren were not trailing for long after finding their equaliser through the unlikely source of central defender Alex Gogic on the 26-minute mark.
The Cyprus international latched onto an in-swinging corner from Mark O’Hara and left Jack Butland helpless as the Rangers keeper watched it cannon into the back of the net.
Boosted by the confidence of the equaliser, St Mirren thought they had taken the lead shortly after the restart but Olusanya’s celebrations were cut short by the offside flag having slotted the ball between the legs of Butland.
End-to-end chaos would ensue but it was Rangers who regained the lead after substitute Cyriel Dessers cut the ball back to Cerny in the penalty area before he carefully guided his effort home.
The Czech Republic winger looked destined to add a second and seal the game but was denied by the outstretched arm of Balcombe to keep St Mirren’s hopes of another equaliser alive.
Rangers wanted a late penalty after Desser rounded the goalkeeper and went down in the area but there was no time for VAR to check the incident as the referee blew for full-time.
Clement: I want to build a bigger squad to deal with games like this
Rangers boss Philippe Clement speaking to Sky Sports:
“You need to score that third goal, that is what we missed. Our tempo was too low in the first half but much better in the second.
“We were against an opponent that was working all week for this game. We had the ball almost all the time and it was about getting these points.
“The goalkeeper made some really remarkable saves but that is a part of football. There are no excuses. We play every three days and fight in four competitions. We want to build a bigger squad to play every three days.
“You cannot play with the same 11 with the amount of games we have.”
Robinson: We deserved a result
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson speaking to Sky Sports:
“I asked for a performance today and we certainly got that. I’ve not come to Ibrox before and created that many chances.
“I don’t think a decision went in our direction, they got explained but whether I agree with them is another matter. I don’t want to overshadow the performance. If we take that performance into the next two games, we can judge ourselves on Sunday.
“We ran out of energy but we needed to keep believing and they did. If we have performances like that, we will be okay. We deserved at least a point from the game. “
St Mirren’s Alex Gogic celebrates scoring to make it 1-1 against Rangers