Rangers reaction: Fear factor missing, their Achilles heal, 'pedestrian and slow'

The interim head coach had set his players the target of winning all five of their post-split fixtures only to come unstuck on day one in Paisley.

Ferguson has been candid and honest about the failings he sees in the squad he inherited from Philippe Clement and expressed his frustration at Rangers’ inability to put this match to bed after twice taking the lead.

The Ibrox club are expected to appoint a new permanent head coach if and when a summer takeover is concluded and Ferguson hoped that whoever ends up succeeding him will make fostering a winning mentality a priority.

“I never got the three points which I had demanded,” he said. “You can’t come to a place like St Mirren, lead the game twice and give a couple of sloppy goals away.

“So that's exactly what we've done. And that's been our Achilles heel, not just since I've come in, that's been the Achilles heel here for a long time. So, overall I’m really disappointed.

“When you spend a week sitting down with them individually and then collectively and you work on things and you show them video stuff, what you're wanting the team to do, and they don't carry it out at times, it's frustrating. When we carried it out, we scored two goals and played the ball quickly, two or three touch.

“And then at times we go back to the way it was a few months ago: pedestrian and slow. And that's not the way that I want my team to play, it's certainly not the way that we train. When we go that way, that then allowed St Mirren, in my opinion, back into the game.

“The issue I've got is people don't fear playing Rangers now. Whether that's at home or away, they enjoy coming to Ibrox. And then when you go away from home, teams look to see if they can bully you, run hard at you and get in about you.

“And that's something that, again, needs to change going forward. You need to build a strong team domestically. And I'm sure whoever takes the [manager’s] job will hopefully totally understand that.”

Ferguson also warned his players that even those who are under contract for next season shouldn’t be getting too comfortable.

He added: “I've said to them, even if you're in contract, everybody's playing for their future. As everybody here knows, there's going to be a lot of changes and there needs to be a lot of changes.”

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson also cut a frustrated figure after his team passed up the chance to land a third successive win over Rangers.

He said: “I'm actually disappointed. I thought we should have won the game. We scored two great goals and we should have scored two more.

“They should have scored but they got the chances and that's what we credit them for. We played really, really well throughout. Overall, I thought we were the better team throughout the game and deserved to win.

“I think it should have been nine points (out of nine) against Rangers. It shows how far the football club has come, how far this group of players have come.”