Bojan Miovski's Late Winner Secures Rangers Victory

Bojan Miovski waited, watched, and then, with one touch, tore the roof off Ibrox.

Deep into stoppage time of a game that had drifted towards frustration, the Rangers substitute darted onto Ryan Naderi’s flick, saw Zach Hemming’s replacement Peter Chapman rushing out, and answered with a delicate dink that dropped perfectly into the net. One moment of calm in a scrappy, anxious night. One moment that turned a flat 0-0 into a 1-0 win and a fourth straight Premiership victory.

Ibrox, silent for spells, exploded.

Rangers labour, St Mirren threaten

For so long, this didn’t look like a Rangers night at all.

Derek McInnes’ side, without injured captain and focal point Lawrence Shankland, pushed and probed but lacked a cutting edge. Naderi, handed the start through the middle, ran willingly yet never quite convinced he could provide the ruthless finish Shankland so often delivers.

The early signs, though, were promising. On 17 minutes, Nicolas Raskin ghosted into the box to meet a cross from Badredine Bouanani, his header destined for the corner until Chapman sprang to his right and clawed it away. A top save, the kind that sets a tone.

Rangers turned the screw. Five minutes later, Chapman was at it again. This time he got down low to palm away a skidding strike from Mohamed Gassama on the edge of the box. Bouanani pounced on the rebound, only for the St Mirren goalkeeper to throw himself in front of the follow-up. Two saves in seconds, and Ibrox groaned.

St Mirren, though, were not just there to survive. Craig McLeish’s team were organised, aggressive and carried a threat on the break. They absorbed pressure, then stepped out with purpose, and as the second half wore on, it was the visitors who created the game’s clearest opening.

On 66 minutes, the entire stadium gasped. Fraser Taylor burst clear, one-on-one with Ivor Pandur, time and space at his mercy. Pick a corner, and St Mirren lead. Instead, his finish lacked conviction, too close to the Rangers goalkeeper, who stood tall and made what felt like a season-shaping save. Taylor held his head. McLeish would later call his team “monsters” for their effort; this was the moment that haunted them.

From there, Rangers wobbled. McInnes admitted his side made “so many bad decisions” for 20–25 minutes. Passes went astray, attacks broke down, anxiety seeped from the stands onto the pitch. St Mirren sensed it and pushed higher, yet that one miss from Taylor hung over them.

Miovski’s moment of calm

McInnes turned to his bench, and it was another substitute who changed everything.

As the game ticked into stoppage time, Pandur launched a long ball forward. Naderi rose and glanced it on, a clever flick that split the St Mirren back line. Miovski was alive to it instantly, streaking through the middle. Chapman charged out, trying to smother the angle.

Miovski didn’t rush. He didn’t snatch. He simply lifted the ball over the advancing keeper with a cool, composed lob – the “lovely, calm finish” his manager would later praise – and watched it drop under the bar. Ibrox erupted, the tension replaced by pure release.

For Rangers, it was not just about three points. The win nudged them above St Mirren into second place and stretched their league run to four victories in a row, six in their last seven. The performances are not yet polished, as McInnes freely admits, but the habit of winning late, of finding a way, is starting to stick.

“We’d like to win a bit more comfortably,” he said afterwards, “but as long as we’re winning, it’s a step towards more complete performances.” Nights like this, when perseverance and sheer will drag a result from a ragged display, build something deeper than just form.

St Mirren’s fury and pride

For St Mirren, this cut deep.

They had already lost 2-1 to Celtic in their previous league outing, and here they were again, leaving Glasgow empty-handed after another performance that deserved more. McLeish could barely fault his players.

“I was delighted with how we played,” he said. “We asked them to be brave and they stuck to what we’ve been doing. We defended well, Chapman had to make some great saves, and it felt like we deserved at least a point.”

He refused to hide behind the schedule – four games in 12 days – and instead hailed his side’s intensity. “We played like monsters tonight,” he insisted. The Taylor miss, he argued, was one of those moments that football gives and takes. “These things even themselves out,” he added, backing his young forward and praising his overall display.

McLeish’s message was clear: St Mirren’s season will not be defined by what they do at Ibrox. “If we play like we did tonight,” he said, “we should keep picking up more points throughout the season.”

They leave with nothing, but also with the conviction that their approach stands up against the league’s biggest clubs.

Celtic double-header looms

For Rangers, the timing of this surge matters.

They now roll into a huge double-header against Celtic, first in the League Cup quarter-finals and then in the Premiership at Parkhead. Four wins on the spin, a late winner to fuel belief, and a squad proving it can cope even without its captain and main striker.

McInnes knows they still need to be sharper, smarter, more ruthless. But with momentum building and match-winners emerging from the bench, the question is no longer whether Rangers can grind out results.

It’s what this growing resilience might mean when the season’s biggest tests arrive in green and white.