St Mirren hit back twice to earn deserved draw against Rangers

Conor McMenamin struck a second-half equaliser to earn St Mirren a 2-2 draw at home to Rangers.

The Ibrox side had twice led through Cyriel Dessers and Nicolas Raskin, only to be pegged back each time by Mark O’Hara and then McMenamin.

The draw was still enough to ensure second place this season for Rangers after Celtic had been crowned champions earlier in the day.

St Mirren made just one enforced change to their line-up after selling Toyosi Olusanya to MLS club Houston Dynamo, with Mikael Mandron coming in to take his place in attack.

Rangers made four changes following their Europa League exit to Athletic Bilbao. Leon Balogun, Ridvan Yilmaz, Vaclav Cerny and Ianis Hagi dropped out and were replaced by Robin Propper, Clinton Nsiala, Bailey Rice and Hamza Igamane.

It was the visitors who had the first chance, a snapshot from Dessers comfortably pushed away by Zach Hemming.

The forward then passed up a great chance to give Rangers the lead. Dessers looked offside when he latched on to Mohamed Diomande’s ball, but no flag was raised after he fired high over the crossbar.

St Mirren had not created a great deal but should have forged in front after 29 minutes. Rangers goalkeeper Liam Kelly mishit a clearance straight to Mandron, but the striker somehow failed to hit the target with an open goal at his mercy.

Rangers took the lead four minutes before half-time when Raskin picked out Dessers with a neat reverse pass and the Nigeria international took a touch before finishing low past Hemming.

St Mirren, though, got back on level terms before the interval. Rangers failed to deal with Killian Phillips’ long throw into the box and the ball fell kindly for O’Hara to fire his effort beyond Kelly.

The visitors moved back in front seven minutes after the restart as Diomande found Raskin, who was able to run uncontested to the edge of the penalty box before shooting into the corner.

St Mirren made two changes to try to get back in the game and one of their replacements should have drawn them level.

Phillips’ flick played in Roland Idowu, but the substitute could not guide his effort past Kelly who saved with his leg.

VAR then had a look at a possible penalty for St Mirren after Nsiala tripped Marcus Fraser, but felt the collision had taken place outside of the box.

Saints, though, did get their equaliser after 75 minutes when Declan John’s cross from the left was turned in by McMenamin from close range.