Rangers' Last-Minute Heroics: Miovski Rescues Season Against St Mirren

Four minutes can feel like a lifetime when a season is teetering on the edge.

As the board went up for stoppage time at Ibrox, Rangers were drifting towards a goalless draw with St Mirren, the mood souring by the second. Boos had already crackled around the stadium. Hundreds of home supporters had seen enough and headed for the exits, fed up with a second half that had unravelled into something scrappy and anxious.

Then Bojan Miovski changed the conversation.

One sharp run, one composed finish, and a night that was about to be framed by anger and inquest suddenly exploded into jubilation. The final 270 seconds passed without a St Mirren reply and Ibrox, half-empty minutes earlier, shook to the kind of wild celebrations usually reserved for cup finals.

Relief doesn’t begin to cover it. But what does it actually change for Derek McInnes and his players?

A goal that keeps the season alive

The significance of Miovski’s late strike is brutal in its simplicity. With Celtic winning 1-0 away to St Johnstone to preserve their perfect league start, Rangers were staring at the prospect of falling seven points behind the champions after just six games.

Had that gap opened up, the mood going into back-to-back derbies against Martin O’Neill’s side would have been bleak. First comes Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup quarter-final, then a trip to Celtic Park in the Premiership a week later. Instead of walking into that storm already half-submerged, Rangers at least keep their heads above water.

The numbers offer McInnes some protection. Since a damaging home defeat by Hibernian last month, a result that came on the back of a European exit and cranked up the pressure, Rangers have gone five unbeaten at Ibrox, winning four in a row.

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

Those are the kind of lines managers lean on when the performances don’t quite match the points tally.

From battering to brink

McInnes knows this is still a work in progress. Since that 5-1 demolition of St Mirren in the League Cup at Ibrox a month ago, all four wins have been by a single goal. The swagger of that cup tie has been replaced by something more strained.

For an hour on this latest meeting, though, Rangers looked like they might run up a similar score. They were aggressive, front-foot, relentless.

“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,” McInnes 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.”

That was exactly the danger. Every missed chance fed St Mirren’s resilience. Every loose touch in the second half drew more irritation from the stands. The tension was real, and it seeped into Rangers’ play.

Desperation and a late payoff

McInnes’ celebrations at full-time, and those of his players, were unrestrained. Some might argue they were over the top for a narrow home win in September. The manager disagrees.

“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 saw both sides of the night. The first half, he felt, offered genuine encouragement.

“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.”

Then the momentum flipped.

“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 forcefulness worked in the end with the direct ball getting them the goal.”

It wasn’t refined. It didn’t need to be. It just had to cross the line.

Miovski steps out of the shadows

Up front, McInnes has been wrestling with problems he can’t fully control. Long-term injuries to Youssef Chermiti and summer signing Lawrence Shankland have stripped him of the two strikers earmarked as first choice. The news that Japanese winger Daisuke Yokota now requires groin surgery, only weeks after arriving, adds another layer of frustration.

Into that gap has stepped a player who, not long ago, seemed to be heading for the door.

Having slipped to fifth-choice in the pecking order, Miovski looked a peripheral figure. Transfer-window talk swirled around him. Now he has the goal that might just reshape his Rangers career.

“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.”

Halliday still doesn’t expect Miovski to start against Celtic, but concedes: “He’s certainly more in the picture after a goal like that.”

McInnes has so far leaned towards Ryan Naderi and Kevin Kelsy, the big-money arrival from Portland Timbers. Yet the manager has never doubted Miovski’s instincts.

“It is just typical of football that a few weeks ago Bojan would have seemed so far out of it,” McInnes said. “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.”

Now those numbers have a moment to attach to, a roar to go with them, a release of pressure that might just alter the mood around Ibrox.

The question is whether this was a turning point or just a stay of execution before Celtic come calling.