Rangers Escape Defeat with Late Goal from Miovski
Four minutes. That was the gap between mutiny and mayhem at Ibrox.
As the board went up for stoppage time, Rangers were stumbling towards a goalless draw with St Mirren, the soundtrack a chorus of boos and the sightline a stream of home fans heading for the exits. The performance had frayed badly after the break, the crowd’s patience even more so.
Then Bojan Miovski appeared.
The striker, pushed to the fringes in recent weeks, darted into the box and finished neatly to drag Rangers over the line. One clean strike, and the mood flipped. The anger in the stands turned into an explosion of relief on the pitch, players and staff celebrating like a trophy had just been lifted rather than two points rescued.
It felt excessive to some. To Derek McInnes, it felt entirely human.
“Last-minute winners are great for players, coaches and fans,” he said, defending the reaction. “We'd rather not be in that position, but credit to the players for keeping going.”
The importance of that goal stretches far beyond one frantic finish. With Celtic beating St Johnstone 1-0 in Perth to keep their perfect league record intact, Rangers were seconds away from slipping seven points behind the champions after just six games. Instead, the gap stays at five, the title race still within touching distance rather than threatening to drift away before autumn has even settled in.
That matters, because what comes next is brutal. Martin O’Neill’s Celtic arrive at Ibrox on Sunday in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final. A week later, Rangers walk into Celtic Park in the Premiership. Miovski’s intervention didn’t just salvage a result; it steadied a season that was beginning to sway.
A fragile run, but a run all the same
Strip away the emotion and McInnes can point to a solid, if unspectacular, start.
“If you strip it back, six wins out of seven, four straight wins,” he said. “We have not lost a goal apart from an own goal.”
The numbers are tidy. The feel of it is less so.
Since that 5-1 demolition of St Mirren in the League Cup a month ago, Rangers have edged four straight one-goal victories at home. They are unbeaten in five at Ibrox since losing to Hibernian last month, a defeat that cranked up the pressure after their early exit from Europe. The response has been pragmatic rather than poetic.
McInnes knows this is a side still being assembled.
“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.”
That first half did carry the look of a team finding some rhythm. Rangers pressed with aggression, pinned St Mirren back and carved out chance after chance. The problem came where it has come too often: the final touch.
Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday saw the same pattern.
“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.”
Control lost, control reclaimed
The game turned after the break. The intensity dropped, the structure loosened, and St Mirren sensed it.
“I don't particularly agree with Derek McInnes' assessment of the second half,” Halliday added. “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.”
That late directness was born as much from necessity as design. McInnes’ options in attack have been stripped back. Long-term injuries to Youssef Chermiti and Lawrence Shankland, the man who started the season as first-choice striker, have ripped up the manager’s original blueprint. The news that new Japanese winger Daisuke Yokota now needs groin surgery only deepens the frustration.
Into that chaos has stepped Miovski, a player who had slipped to fifth-choice and looked destined for the exit only weeks ago.
“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 does not expect him to start against Celtic, but he accepts the landscape has shifted.
“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 summer signing from Portland Timbers. Yet the numbers behind Miovski’s cameo are hard to ignore.
“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.”
For now, Miovski is the unlikely hero who kept Rangers’ season on the rails. The question is whether that late, wild roar at Ibrox marks a turning point in their campaign, or just a brief escape before the real examination arrives in the shape of Celtic.
