St Mirren vs Rangers; Scottish Premiership
St Mirren vs Rangers. Scottish Premiership.
The SMiSA StadiumAttendance6,886.
St Mirren 1-1 Rangers: Findlay Curtis salvages draw for visitors as pressure mounts on Russell Martin
Report as Rangers are held to a 1-1 draw by St Mirren; Jonah Ayunga gave the hosts a deserved lead before Findlay Curtis found a late equaliser; pressure continues to mount on Russell Martin after draw leaves him with just three wins from nine games
Sunday 24 August 2025 20:47, UK
The pressure on Russell Martin intensified as his Rangers side salvaged a 1-1 draw with St Mirren to continue their poor start to the Scottish Premiership season.
Rangers were looking to bounce back after the midweek Champions League defeat to Club Brugge and secure their first win of the league campaign, but the visitors struggled to impose themselves on the stubborn Buddies.
- How the teams lined up | Stats
- In full: Scottish Premiership 2025/26 fixtures
- Got Sky? Watch now on the Sky Sports app 📱
- Not got Sky? Get instant access with no contract 📺
Martin’s men - labelled "powder-puff, slow and with zero energy" by Sky Sports pundit Kris Boyd at half-time - were flustered by the intensity and physicality on display from the hosts, an approach which eventually led to Jonah Ayunga finishing a fabulous counter-attack to give St Mirren the lead.
Rangers had chances to level, as Lyall Cameron fired over from close range before Shamal George pulled off a miraculous save to keep out Thelo Aasgaard in the first half.
Martin switched to an untested back three for the second period, which finally paid dividends with less than 15 minutes to play, as substitute Findlay Curtis equalised minutes after his introduction. They continued to push frantically for a winner, but were unable to break down the hosts as the two sides settled for a point apiece.
The draw means that it is the first time since 1989 that Rangers have gone three games without a win to start the league season, and the away fans serenaded Martin and his players with boos at the full-time whistle. Attention will turn to the second leg of their Champions League qualifier with Club Brugge and the first Old Firm clash of the season against Celtic next Sunday, live on Sky Sports.
Martin: 'Igamane told me he was injured'
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Russell Martin explained why he didn't bring Hamza Igamane off the bench.
"Hamza told me he was injured," said Martin.
"We had a bid this week for Hamza, we rejected it. All was fine. Trained fine yesterday [Saturday], warmed up fine. I turned around to him at 60 minutes because I wanted two strikers on the pitch. Hamza told me he was injured.
"I don't know [if he refused to play.] I have to trust him but we'll see. The issue is that the transfer window is still open. There are a lot of people, one eye out the door and one in and we need people to be all in all the time in this football club."
"We really need that. At the minute there's still too many people uncertain or still trying to think, 'maybe there's something there for me'. The window needs to shut quickly.
"In-house we need to make sure that we have people who really want to be here, so the people that come in and the people that stay really want to be here. We'll see."
Robinson: 'We struggled to keep up with intensity'
St Mirren boss Steve Robinson told Sky Sports:
"Some of our play, some of our passing, some of the chances we created. Our goal is excellent, a little bit of composure playing out from the back. Second half, we stopped doing the things that were stopping Rangers getting into their rhythm.
"Our press sort of lacked a wee bit of energy with the front two tiring. And credit to Rangers, they came out in the second half and obviously changed it and were the better side.
"We should have dealt better with the goal. Our initial clearance was poor and we should have closed it down a little bit quicker. But as I say, if we had taken a point before the game, we would have been quite happy."
Boyd slams 'powder-puff' Rangers' recruitment
Sky Sports' Kris Boyd:
"Russell Martin has bought a few players in. He needs to be careful. He keeps going back to the English market. Inflated, overrated for me. There's a long list of Rangers players that have arrived from the Championship and aren't up to it.
"Max Aarons and Joe Rothwell are falling into the Kieran Dowell, Tom Cantwell, Tom Lawrence category than they are Connor Goldson and James Tavernier.
"Right now, Rangers are a million miles away from where they need to be. There's no intensity to anything Rangers do.
"Russell can speak about energy and all the buzz words he wants in training, but his team need to start showing it."
