Ibrox View: 9/10 unplayable, 3/10 lazy – Rangers player ratings vs St Mirren
Derek McInnes went into Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup tie against St Mirren having been remarkably candid about what his players owed the Ibrox faithful. Speaking in the aftermath of Thursday’s Europa League exit to Jagiellonia Bialystok — a result greeted with loud boos at full-time — McInnes made no attempt to shield his squad from criticism, or to ask for patience he clearly felt hadn’t been earned
Asked directly about the angry scenes that followed the European exit, McInnes didn’t hedge. He said supporters needed to see something to get behind — a team that looked visibly better than the one that had just crashed out of Europe. He was careful to note there had been flickers of promise scattered across his opening four games in charge, but was equally blunt in admitting those moments weren’t nearly enough to justify patience. Asked whether he was seeking understanding from the fanbase, his answer was direct: nobody was asking for that. He said he understood the frustration completely.
That’s a notably honest position for a manager to take just weeks into a new job, and it set the tone heading into Sunday’s cup tie. Rangers arrived at the fixture without a win at Ibrox since April 4 — a genuinely alarming stretch of home form for a club of Rangers’ stature — and McInnes was clear-eyed about the scale of the challenge facing him.
Notably, McInnes didn’t talk down St Mirren ahead of the game, despite Rangers’ status as overwhelming favourites. He spoke with real familiarity about Craig McLeish’s side, noting they’d altered their style of play over the summer and had shown real quality in their opening two league matches, both won. He pointed out that many of St Mirren’s players were known quantities to him personally, and predicted correctly that they’d travel to Ibrox full of confidence, having already qualified for this stage of the competition through the group phase. It was a sign of a manager taking nothing for granted, given how shaky his own side’s form had been.
McInnes also used the pre-match build-up to be candid about the structural issues underlying Rangers’ poor start. He admitted his side had scored only once from open play across their opening four fixtures, and had looked consistently vulnerable without the ball — an issue he attributed partly to constant team changes and what he called “square pegs in round holes,” a direct reference to the absence of a recognised left-footed defender in his squad. That admission lined up precisely with the injury and squad-planning issues that had forced Rangers into the market for James Penrice just days earlier
Whatever doubts existed heading into the match, Rangers delivered emphatically. The final score read 5-1 to the home side, with new signing James Penrice — signed on loan from AEK Athens only days before kick-off — announcing himself in style with a goal and an assist on his debut. Vanja Dragojevic added a stunning volley of his own, Djeidi Gassama and substitute Ross McCausland got on the scoresheet too, and although Chris Mochrie pulled one back for St Mirren in between, there was never any real sense of the visitors threatening a genuine comeback once Rangers’ second-half goals arrived.
It was precisely the kind of response McInnes had called for just days earlier — a performance and result visibly better than the one that had provoked boos against Jagiellonia, delivered against an opponent he’d taken care not to underestimate.
A single cup win doesn’t erase four winless matches, nor does it resolve the underlying issues McInnes himself identified — the lack of goals from open play, the defensive vulnerability, the constant enforced reshuffling of his back line. But it does offer something Rangers haven’t had all season: a genuinely positive account to build from, and a first glimpse of a summer signing already justifying his swift arrival.
With a Conference League double-header against Czech side Jablonec looming next, McInnes will know this result buys him a little breathing room rather than solving anything definitively. Still, after a week that began with boos ringing around Ibrox, ending it with a five-goal win and a man-of-the-match debut represents exactly the kind of “action” he’d asked his players to deliver.
