Rangers boss Danny Rohl confessed he was ‘smiling’ after Premiership leaders Hearts slipped up at the weekend – before watching his own team scrape past managerless St Mirren to take three vital points.
Tuur Rommens scored after 31 minutes in Paisley but the Ibrox side couldn’t add to his goal and endured a nervy ending against struggling Saints.
They held on for a crucial 1-0 victory that took Rohl’s men to within a point of Celtic and three behind Hearts, who suffered a shock loss to Kilmarnock.
The German admitted that Saturday night’s twist in the title race pleased him … and reckons there will be more to come.
‘I would be lying if I said I was not smiling after this, this is normal,’ he said. ‘But I know, in the next week, we have to deliver again. And it will go now a little bit up and down.
‘The team who is now consistent until the end and takes the right results will win this league. I felt, in the morning when we met each other, there was so much energy in the dressing room. It was fantastic.
Rohl admitted he was smiling when news came through that Hearts lost in Kilmarnock
‘There’s so much belief in our group, there’s no doubt we can achieve something this season. But you have to take the results – and here we did.
‘I think the table now looks better than before this matchday and this is great. Our performances in the last couple of weeks gave me the belief, even though the result was not there.
‘I felt how strong we can press, we have a physical side, we have weapons in front, we can score nice goals. And if you bring all this together then we can win a lot of games until the end of the season.’
Despite Rohl’s optimism, his team should have scored more, although his defence stood firm to limit Saints’ chances.
‘I wish we used one or two chances more, then we have a calm end to the game,’ he said. ‘But, if you have a clean sheet, then you can win games.
‘It’s all about bringing the game home. I think our subs got the job done. We have a very competitive group at the moment in every position and this is also important.
‘We are happy. After three good performances without the right result, we took the result and this is the most important.
Tuur Rommens jumps for joy after scoring the all-important goal against St Mirren
‘This is just a small step. Eight cup finals left now. And, at this stage of the season, it’s just about winning the cup finals.’
Rohl revealed his goal hero was a major injury doubt in the lead-up to the game.
‘Tuur didn’t train for two days because he got a big kick and it was a big question mark,’ he said . ‘Jayden (Meghoma) was well-prepared for this, but Tuur came back and he performed and scored.”
St Mirren interim boss Craig McLeish suggested he is likely to have one more match in charge before Stephen Robinson’s replacement is appointed.
Now only above Kilmarnock on goal difference, Saints travel to Falkirk before the international break.
McLeish said: ‘Keith (Lasley, CEO) is trying not to put a timeline on it. There’s a recruitment process in place. He’ll catch up with the guys who are running that – and that will be ongoing.
‘He just told us that the likely outcome is we’ll take the team for training this week and we’ll do the Falkirk game. Then, hopefully throughout the international break, they’ll be closer to appointing someone for us coming back.’
Rommens does well to get his foot on the ball and steer it past Shamal George
McLeish reported more devastating injury news for the depleted Paisley ranks. An Achilles injury suffered in training on Thursday has ended the season for Keanu Baccus.
The caretaker said: ‘He’s booked in for surgery this Thursday and it looks like that could be a number of months. Declan John then picked up a groin issue in training and we need to assess him. He’s seeing a specialist. We’re a bit unclear on that one, but we’ll have an answer at the start of the week.’
McLeish told the St Mirren players their display against Rangers should give sufficient belief for the survival battle ahead.
‘I spoke to the boys about that at the end. I think they have to take so much confidence from individual performances and group performance.
‘I’m disappointed in the result, first and foremost. I thought we played well during the game.
‘The disappointing thing was probably not carrying as much threat in the final third as we had hoped. That’s up to us now to work on that moving forward.
‘I can’t ask any more of the boys, and their attitudes towards everything this week with what’s going on at the club. The effort and energy they showed on the pitch was fantastic.’
