I watched Rangers beat St Mirren and noted men who must raise it and No 6 who can make title difference

Left-back Tuur Rommens netted the only goal of the game on 31 minutes to give the Ibrox side their first win in a month. They remain in third place - but are right in the mix for the title with eight games to go.

Conversely, St Mirren are now joint-11th with Kilmarnock - above them only by four goals - and are in real danger of being dragged into a relegation play-off.

We pick out some of the things that made our St Mirren v Rangers notebook:

Rangers need to find another attacking level

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl purred over his team’s recent performances and said that they gave him optimism that come the end of the season, the Ibrox side can be champions.

Defensively, it is hard to argue with Rohl. They kept a clean sheet for the second weekend in a row and a back four of James Tavernier, Nasser Djiga, Emmanuel Fernandez and Rommens stood up well to St Mirren’s physical frontline. With Tochi Chukwuani screening in the No 6 role, not much got through.

The area of concern is further up the pitch. Rangers do create some chances but the two strikers, Youssef Chermiti and Ryan Naderi, aren’t prolific enough. Both capable of magic moments, they fluffed good lines in Paisley with poor misses from deep inside the penalty box.

Bojan Miovski came on later in the match, but the North Macedonian continues to be underwhelming since his summer arrival from Girona.

If Rangers are to go on and win this league, they probably need one of their three strikers to hit a hot streak. They need to find another level and then maintain it for eight matches. There is not enough evidence right now to confidently say they will do so.

Out on a wing

The attacking issue is not just confined to ruthlessness in front of goal. Rangers have a conundrum out on the flanks too.

Mikey Moore remains the most dynamic player in the Rangers team. The 18-year-old is largely exempt from criticism, given the Tottenham loanee isn’t afraid to get on the ball and try things. They often don’t come off, but his trickery and pace are a constant threat to opponents.

Rohl is not getting the same tune from the other side, whether it is from Djeidi Gassama or Andreas Skov Olsen.

Gassama was given the nod against St Mirren but did little to suggest he is more effective right now than Skov Olsen, who came on around the hour mark to replace him. The Dane didn’t enhance his own lofty expectations and still appears sluggish and ponderous when on the ball.

Both players are capable of more. Gassama proved at the start of the season that he can burn past opponents and deliver goals. The Frenchman looks low on confidence - probably not helped by his penalty miss against Celtic last weekend.

Skov Olsen has not hit the ground running since arriving on loan at Ibrox. There was a spell in Paisley where captain Tavernier was clearly exasperated with the winger’s movement as they tried to connect down the right. It isn’t happening for him right now.

The return of Barron

Connor Barron’s 72nd-minute introduction for Chukwuani was noteworthy given this was his first appearance since January 6, when he laid on two assists in a 2-0 win over former club Aberdeen. The 23-year-old has grown in stature this season at Rangers and his knee injury at the start of the year came at a bad time.

Barron is a No 6 who is not afraid to get on the ball, to move it quickly. He is mature, tenacious and fits into Rohl’s system nicely. He offers a different skillset to other midfielders in Chukwuani, Nicolas Raskin and Mohamed Diomande.

Rohl was clearly pleased to have Barron back and feels he could make a difference to their title challenge.

Paisley problems

This wasn’t a good week for St Mirren. They lost their manager Stephen Robinson to Aberdeen and were also hit by injuries to captain Marcus Fraser and midfielder Keanu Baccus. The latter is set to miss the rest of the season and Australia’s World Cup in the summer. Rotten luck.

St Mirren felt the absence of both players against Rangers. While the Premier Sports Cup is already bagged and there is a Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic on the horizon, the Premiership form continues to nosedive. Kilmarnock’s win over Hearts was not welcomed, as it reels them in to joint-11th place.

The chances are interim boss Craig McLeish will be in charge next weekend against Falkirk. As the man himself noted, the international break after that game seems a logical time to bring in a new boss.

That appointment is going to be critical. Whoever comes in needs to get a quick tune out of a struggling squad.

One thing they can count on is courage. A tweet from coach Jamie Langfield on midfielder Alex Gogic summed it up after he soldiered on with head wound. “Honestly never seen anything like it on a football pitch….gogic 6 staples side of pitch and then plays like that for 96 mins 😳 absolutely shows you this team is fighting. Let’s stick together every one of us,” wrote Langfield. That’s the spirit.