I watched Rangers' late show at Ibrox and noted Penny Arcade moment and key ingredient team has lacked

It was a much-needed victory for the Ibrox side ahead of facing their Old Firm rivals not once but twice later this month.

Graeme Macpherson was in Govan to cover proceedings for The Scotsman and picks out three talking points:

A big moment for Miovski, McInnes and Rangers

The exuberant celebrations that followed what was a hard-fought if unspectacular home league win over a team Rangers would usually be expected to defeat quite comfortably told the story of a turbulent campaign so far at Ibrox.

The Rangers support is still to be wholly convinced about Derek McInnes’ merits as their manager and a goalless draw and the prospect of falling seven points behind Celtic would have done little for him in the popularity stakes. Ibrox had been slowly working itself up into a lather about the fecklessness of Rangers’ second-half display and the team would almost certainly have been booed off the field by a disgruntled support had they not scored.

Miovski’s goal, then, was significant both for him as a player previously out of favour and for McInnes, too. After being knocked out of Europe, the manager could not afford another mis-step so soon after and so the sight of him clapping along on the touchline to Penny Arcade and punching the air was the look of a man feeling relief as much as delight.

Seasons can often turn on such joy-releasing moments and McInnes will be certainly hoping it provides a tonic for his team who laboured for long spells to make any inroads until that late intervention.

Big calls up front ahead for Sunday

McInnes had said in his pre-match press conference that all three of his fit strikers would have a role to play with Lawrence Shankland and Youssef Chermiti out long-term injured and so it proved. He opted to start both Ryan Naderi and Kevin Kelsy together as part of a rejigged 4-4-2 formation but neither player made much of an impression despite the vast quantity of chances Rangers created in the first half.

It took Miovski’s appearance off the bench to show them the way, with Rangers going more direct and getting the benefits. Naderi does at least deserve credit for the assist but the rest was down to Miovski who showed the requisite composure that had been lacking in many of his team-mates earlier.

The North Macedonian hasn’t started since April when he was hooked at half-time in the 3-2 defeat to Motherwell but has made a decent claim to be afforded the chance to do so against Celtic.

St Mirren can’t keep missing chances

Craig McLeish has transformed so much around St Mirren this season – and most of it for the better – but that age-old problem of struggling to put the ball in the net persists. The draw at home to Motherwell and now back-to-back narrow defeats to Celtic and Rangers could and should have yielded a greater points return if they had managed to convert even just one or two of their chances.

Nikolas Agrafiotis has proven to be an effective link-man in attack but doesn’t seem a natural finisher, while Eseosa Sule and Jake Young have also struggled to convince.

Saints have scored just one goal in five of their last six matches. They will need to convert more of their opportunities if they are to make a run for the top six.