22/02/2025 – RANGERS (A)

Our longest run without a win at any individual ground is finally over!

As we alluded to last time around, 1991 was a long time ago, and probably the majority of Saints fans who made the short journey to Govan on Saturday had never seen us win at Ibrox.

That was certainly the case for us, but the feeling going into the match was a bit different, we felt we had a real chance.

Easy to say in hindsight of course, but despite having seen many Saints defeats at this ground over the decades, we had no absolutely no fear going into this match despite our own indifferent form.

Our reasons behind this were straight forward, and probably shared by a lot of fans beforehand. Firstly, it suits us when we are underdogs and teams come out and attack us. Secondly, using the evidence of the 2 previous matches between the clubs this season, our manager seemed to have the measure of his counterpart.

Thirdly, was the current uncertainty with the home club and the future of both the manager and ownership, that had been in the spotlight following a prolonged period of unhappiness from the stands. If we could use this to our advantage it could help us achieve a positive result.

Stephen Robinson decided to go 2 up front, with Jonah Ayunga surprisingly replacing Toyosi Olusanya in the starting XI, beside Mikael Mandron who has been in splendid form this calendar year.

On the bus to the match, the thinking was we could unleash a fresh Toyosi in the last half hour to win the match, should it be tight, as the Rangers defenders just couldn’t handle him on Boxing Day when we won 2-1 against the Ibrox side. And so it proved.

The early signs were encouraging. Despite a smattering of USA flags around the home support in reference to a potential takeover by some American football enthusiasts, the grumblings and discontent from the home stands began in the opening minutes.

Saints pressed Rangers goalkeeper and defence hard in the opening 10 minutes, and the Ibrox backline simply cracked. Ayuna was presented with a great opportunity during this period when Jack Butland passed to him after pressure by Mandron, but although the ball wouldn’t sit up quickly for the Kenyan, he eventually hammered a half volley goalward that Butland parried out to big Mika.

Mandron swiftly returned the ball at goal, but the Rangers keeper tipped it over the bar, however the tone of the afternoon was set and the home side never really got into the game or had any periods of domination, as Saints just repeatedly picked the Ibrox side off.

Rangers were saved by VAR late in the fist half when Igamane’s wild tackle on O’Hara was (un)surprisingly changed from a red to yellow card, but there was to be no such reprieve early in the second half when Saints took a deserved lead.

Mikael Mandron was the scorer, continuing his fine 2025 form, after taking advantage of some clumsy defending to hammer a left foot volley low into the net after 51 minutes.

Kevin Clancy immediately blew for a Rangers free kick, but after a lengthy VAR check, the goal was correctly given as the home defender had tripped himself up, which looked obvious at the game without the need for a replay.

This takes Mandron to 5 goals this season, with 4 scored in the last month. Last season he scored 5 of his 8 league goals between the 1st of February and the end of April. This is Mika time.

Olusanya was then introduced on 65 minutes, and as many predicted, finished the game off just five minutes later when he volleyed into the corner after frightening the life out of Rangers with his mere presence.

Even by this point Ibrox resembled a ghost town, and by full time, it was genuinely difficult to determine who had more fans in the ground, which was useful in getting home much quicker than usual!

At the end, the fans greeted the players like heroes, and of course they most definitely were.

Forget the predictable noise from the media about Rangers not being good, that’s not our fault and also it’s not exactly been breaking news either, they haven’t been great for a long time, but they do have a budget at least 10 times the size of ours.

To put it into context, Jack Butland probably gets paid more a year than our entire first team budget, so that’s the actual story.

Plus, we rarely win at Ibrox. This was only our 9th ever league win at the ground, going back to the first ever season of league football in Scotland in 1890, and only the third time in history we’ve won back to back matches against Rangers, with the last time being 1979/80 following our 1904/05 success.

Saturday was history being made, and whether you were at the match or not, it was another phenomenal day to be a Saints fan.

We now go into a match against Hearts, arguably a much harder game against a team in form, however we’ve beaten them this season already and should have done so again a few weeks ago in the Scottish Cup.

If you can make it to Edinburgh on Wednesday, let’s roar the team on and try to make the possibility of third consecutive top 6 season a reality.

COYS!

Previous wins at Ibrox in the League:

Date	Home	Score	Away
23/11/1991	Rangers	0 – 1	St. Mirren
12/08/1989	Rangers	0 – 1	St. Mirren
05/01/1980	Rangers	1 – 2	St. Mirren
12/08/1978	Rangers	0 – 1	St. Mirren
08/02/1964	Rangers	2 – 3	St. Mirren
17/10/1959	Rangers	1 – 3	St. Mirren
01/10/1904	Rangers	2 – 3	St. Mirren
10/05/1892	Rangers	2 – 3	St. Mirren

Rangers Players of the Match:

5 points – Mark O’Hara

3 points – Mikael Mandron

1 point – Alex Gogic

Check our the Player of the Season race here –

PLAYER OF THE SEASON