St Mirren looking to take the positives from Rangers defeat

It’s been five months since St Mirren won at home in the league, but after going down gallantly to a 1-0 defeat to Ladbrokes Championship leaders Rangers, Ian Murray’s men are in the mood to be optimistic.

The Buddies currently sit seventh in the table, 11 points behind Raith Rovers in the final promotion play-off position, but for midfielder Stevie Mallan, that push for a Premiership return is far from over, after an encouraging performance at St Mirren Park.

“Everyone knows you are expected to lose when you play Rangers or Celtic,” he told the Evening Times.

“I think from what we all did, in the way we pressed and worked as a team, it will boost us even more as it shows you what we can do against the bigger teams.

“The performance from the boys was a real big effort and we will take that into next week.”

The defeat brought about an end to the side’s four-game unbeaten run in all competitions, though they were only the second team to keep Rangers to one goal in the league since April.

That goal was a sloppy one to concede with goalkeeper Jamie Langfield beaten at his far post by a fizzing shot-cum-cross from Jason Holt.

However, for much of the game Buddies fans could be encouraged by the hassling and harrying that their team implemented on Mark Warburton’s Gers.

At the end of the day though, a defeat is a defeat. Ian Murray’s men were 1/7 to secure a promotion play-off position at the start of the campaign, but just two wins in eleven means that price is now Evens.

And the former Dumbarton man at the helm has been more than happy to hold his hands up after his side’s slow start.

“I’ve made mistakes, I’ve tried to recognise them and rectify them,” he told The Herald.

“We had a poor start to the season, which is why we are now trying to play catch-up. But I think in recent games, in terms of performance, there has been a resurgence. Mark Warburton made some complimentary comments about the way we tried to play against Rangers on Sunday.”

The next test of how far they have come comes on Saturday when Murray takes his side east for a clash with Falkirk, one of the teams currently holding one of their destined top-four spots.

St Mirren are 21/10 to secure a victory at the weekend, one that would close the gap to the promised land to eight points and hand them a confidence boost as they look to finally climb the table.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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