Rangers host St Mirren in a Scottish Premiership fixture originally due on 22 August 2026 but postponed because of Rangers' UEFA play off commitments, with the rescheduled date falling in the week of 8/9 or 15/16 September. The form table makes uncomfortable reading for the home side: Rangers sit ninth with one point from two league games and a negative goal difference, while St Mirren are second with six from their opening two. Rangers are trying to arrest a run that includes Europa League elimination and a stumbling start under Derek McInnes, whereas St Mirren arrive having won 2-0 against Falkirk and 1-0 against St Johnstone in their opening league games, though they will remember that Rangers hammered them 5-1 in the League Cup only days before this fixture.
Derek McInnes was appointed Rangers manager on 17 June 2026, replacing Danny Rohl, while Craig McLeish took the St Mirren job permanently in early June after Stephen Robinson departed. Their only meeting in charge of these clubs ended 5-1 to Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup last 16 on 16 August 2026. Whether that scoreline reflects a genuine gap in quality or just a bad St Mirren day is one of the more interesting questions hanging over this game.
Rangers' last five competitive results read W-D-L-L-D: a 1-0 win over Jablonec in Conference League qualifying on 20 August, a 1-1 draw with Dundee United, a 1-2 loss to Hibernian, Europa League elimination by Jagiellonia Bialystok on aggregate and the 5-1 cup win over St Mirren. It's a patchy run and the European exit stings more than the league points do. St Mirren's recent sequence is simpler: after the cup thrashing they won 2-0 against Falkirk and 1-0 against St Johnstone, bouncing back well enough to suggest the cup result told us more about a bad night for them than about any real gulf between the two sides.
Lawrence Shankland leads the line for Rangers with both sides at full strength. McInnes appears to be building a side that gets balls into the box for Shankland by using full backs and wingers to overload wide areas and it worked brutally well in the cup. St Mirren will have spent time since studying that game and tightening their midfield shape to cut off delivery channels and their defensive block is hard to break once organised. What matters is what Shankland does in the space between: if he drops short to receive and turns his marker, a midfield runner arriving late becomes the danger, if St Mirren's centre backs pin him high and their midfield screen holds, Rangers could find themselves battering a wall. If Rangers then commit bodies forward chasing a second goal and St Mirren win the ball high up the pitch, the space in behind is real.
Rangers 2-1 St Mirren. The 5-1 cup win showed Rangers can create volume in the final third and a width heavy approach should generate enough good crosses for Shankland to get on the scoresheet. St Mirren are not the side that meekly lost that cup tie, though: they have won both league games since and if Rangers leave themselves exposed going forward, a side sharp enough to beat Falkirk and St Johnstone back to back will make them pay. Three points for a home side that badly needs them, with St Mirren scoring once before Rangers close it out.
Ryan Baldi
Football Writer
Ryan Baldi is a professional football writer with years of experience and has been featured by respected outlets such as the BBC, The Guardian, Sky Sports, DAZN, FourFourTwo, ESPN, Yahoo Sport and Football365. He has also written several books including Arsène Who?.
