Late goal keeps Rangers on track for Old Firm double-header

If a week is a long time in politics, four minutes can feel like an age in football.

Had Bojan Miovski not rescued Rangers with a neat finish at home to St Mirren as the match entered stoppage time, the post-match talk would have been about the boos ringing round Ibrox.

Hundreds of home fans had already headed for the exits in frustration at a disjointed second-half display.

Instead, after the remaining 270 seconds passed without a St Mirren response, Rangers players and staff flew into the kind of scenes of wild celebrations that normally greet a cup final victory.

Their sails were filled with massive sighs of relief, but where does it really leave Derek McInnes' side heading into two games against city rivals Celtic that could help define their season?

The significance of Miovski's goal cannot be downplayed.

With Celtic beating St Johnstone by the same scoreline in Perth to maintain their own 100% league record, Rangers were so close to falling seven points adrift of the reigning champions only six games into the season.

The wind would have been taken firmly out those sails as they prepare to face Martin O'Neill's men in Sunday's Premier Sports Cup quarter-final before visiting Celtic Park in the Premiership a week later.

As it is, Rangers are now unbeaten in five home games, winning the latest four since losing to Hibernian last month in a game that piled early pressure on McInnes amid his side's exit from European competition.

"If you strip it back, six wins out of seven, four straight wins," the former Heart of Midlothian head coach could rightfully point out. "We have not lost a goal apart from an own goal."

However, since their 5-1 thrashing of holders St Mirren on their last visit to Ibrox a month ago in the League Cup, their four wins have been by a single goal and McInnes recognises that his rebuilt squad are still a work in progress.

"I thought we got what we deserved, granted St Mirren had a 20-minute period in the second half when they were better than us," he told BBC Scotland.

"They played with a bit more belief and came after us and we were guilty of so many poor decisions.

"But I thought the performance for the first hour was really strong, particularly the first half, where we absolutely battered St Mirren.

"I was really pleased with the performance, but at 0-0, as an opposition manager, when you've been put through the ringer and you know you haven't been punished for it, it does give you power and belief that you can get something from it."

McInnes defended the celebrations as understandable in the circumstances.

"Last-minute winners are great for players, coaches and fans," he said. "We'd rather not be in that position, but credit to the players for keeping going.

"There are obviously loads we have to improve on, but we have to meanwhile keep winning and we have to keep improving if we are to achieve anything this season."

Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday believes positive signs are there.

"I thought in the first half Rangers were really good," he told BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound. "They have shown a vast improvement off the ball over the last three or four games.

"They played with a lot of aggression, a lot of intensity and they've created an abundance of chances in the first half as well, but they just don't seem to have that ruthlessness in the top end of the pitch.

"I don't particularly agree with Derek McInnes' assessment of the second half. I thought St Mirren had much more than a 20-minute period. Rangers just lost all control and got a bit desperate.

"They got a wee bit too forceful too early, but take nothing away from them - the forecefulness worked in the end with the direct ball getting them the goal."

McInnes' ability to find the scoring touch up front has not been helped by long-term injuries to Youssef Chermiti and summer arrival Lawrence Shankland, who started the season as Rangers' first-choice strikers.

The news that Japanese winger Daisuke Yokota will undergo surgery on a groin injury only weeks after his own arrival will add to the frustration.

Having dropped to fifth-choice, Miovski has suddenly emerged as an unlikely saviour.

"It just shows you what football is like and how quickly it can change," Halliday said.

"It looked like he was out of the picture two or three weeks ago and it looked like he was going to be on his way in the transfer window, but he's come up with a massive goal."

While Halliday does not expect Miovski to start next time out against Celtic, he suggested: "He's certainly more in the picture after a goal like that."

McInnes has so far preferred Ryan Naderi and Kevin Kelsy, the big-money summer arrival from Portland Timbers.

"It is just typical of football that a few weeks ago Bojan would have seemed so far out of it," the manager added.

"But, when you actually strip it back, his goals per minutes in the Premiership is up there with Lawrence Shankland.

"So I was delighted when I inherited someone like Bojan who knows his way about the Scottish Premiership and is a goalscorer and, played in the right manner and with the right partner, is capable of scoring goals."