Teenager Findlay Curtis rescued ragged Rangers with a late strike in a 1-1 Scottish Premiership draw at St Mirren, to leave Russell Martin still looking for his first league win in charge.
Martin’s side have now drawn against Motherwell, Dundee and the Buddies, the first time since 1989 that Rangers have gone without a victory in their first three league games. The under-fire manager also revealed after the game that he wanted to bring Hamza Igamane on in the second half, but the forward claimed he was injured.
The visitors started without a recognised centre-forward, with midfielder Thelo Aasgaard leading the line as Danilo and Igamane started on the bench with Cyriel Dessiers injured. The visitors found themselves behind in the 33rd minute when Saints striker Jonah Ayunga raced through to beat goalkeeper Jack Butland.
Martin changed tactics and personnel in the second half and in the 78th minute, 18-year-old substitute Curtis drilled in the equaliser with his third goal of the season but the visitors could not find a winner, leaving Martin with three wins in nine games as Rangers head coach.
Asked after the game about Igamane, Martin said: “I wanted to bring him on around 60 minutes, and he said he has a sore quad so he can’t come on. He wouldn’t be on the bench if he’s not fit. So he said he’d done it warming up.
“We turned down a bid this week, but we’ll assess his injury and I have to trust Hamza so we’ll see what happens. As a human being I have to trust that he has done it in the warm-up like he said and we’ll see.”
Asked if the Morocco international fell into his category of players with one eye on the exit door, Martin replied: “I think when you’ve had a bid turned down in the week and then this happens, maybe … I’m quite calm about it. We’ll assess Hamza [for his injury]. Hopefully, it’s not too bad and we’ll see what happens.”
Martin moved on to discuss Dessers, who could also leave Ibrox before the transfer window closes. “Cyriel’s not asked to leave. He’s not asked to leave once. But we’ve had a lot of discussions about it so we’ll see what happens.”
“He’s worked really hard to get fit, hasn’t quite been fit, he’ll probably be fit for Wednesday,” the former Southampton manager added. “So while he’s made it really clear what his intention would be or what his desire would be, there’s been no problem, none. He trains properly, performs with the team, been great, but everyone’s different. Every human being is different.”
Five minutes into the match in Paisley, the Saints goalkeeper Shamal George made a fine save from Oliver Antman’s 20-yard drive. St Mirren looked sharper and more aggressive as the half wore on, and striker Mikael Mandron just failed to get enough on a terrific Phillips cross to the back post.
Just after the half-hour mark, Mandron split open the visiting defence with an incisive pass to fellow forward Ayunga, who left the visitors’ captain John Souttar trailing before confidently driving the ball past Butland. Moments later, George somehow managed to claw the ball away from Aasgaard just yards from goal as Rangers sought an immediate response.
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Martin was forced to take action at the break as Danilo and Mikey Moore replaced Antman and Meghoma and he went to a back three. But it was not long before Butland dived to save Ayunga’s angled-drive and the hosts, stronger and more cohesive, continued to threaten.
St Mirren’s final shot or pass let them down on several occasions and they were made to pay when Curtis – on for Joe Rothwell – picked up a clearance from a corner and drilled a shot low past George and into the net. Rangers pressed for the winner in the final stages and George made a good save from substitute James Tavernier’s long range shot.
Curtis fired over from a narrow angle and at the other end, Butland tipped an Alex Gogic header over the crossbar, as the match ended in a frantic finish and boos from the travelling fans at the final whistle.
The St Mirren manager, Stephen Robinson, was proud of his players’ efforts. “I thought we were outstanding in the first half again, created numerous chances and just a little bit of decision making, lacking that quality in certain decisions,” he said.
“Credit to Rangers, they come out second half, made changes. Spooked us maybe a little bit for 20, 25 minutes. So that’s something we need to improve on, but overall, we’re happy with the point, we believe it could have been more, but they may feel the exact same.”
Celtic can go nine points clear of their rivals if they win the Old Firm game at Ibrox next Sunday. First Rangers have to rescue their Champions League hopes with a trip to Club Brugge on Wednesday, where they look to claw back a 3-1 deficit from the first leg of the playoff.
