The victory made it seven successive home wins as the Light Blues netted three or more goals in a fixture for the 12th time in Michael Beale’s 22 matches in charge.
The Ibrox side were pegged back twice in the contest against a dogged Buddies outfit, netting three times in the final ten minutes through an Alfredo Morelos double and a neat Scott Arfield finish to seal all three points.
Todd Cantwell opened the scoring for the Gers with the game 26 minutes young, putting the exclamation point on a 13-pass move which started with Borna Barisic on the left-hand side and culminated in James Tavernier fizzing a delicious delivery across the face of the penalty area for the former Norwich City man to stab home.
The 25-year-old was directly involved in three out of the five goals that the Light Blues engineered on Saturday afternoon, with his pair of assists taking his total to four assists since arriving in Glasgow in January.
"Todd scored a good first goal and he obviously gets an assist,” Beale told RangersTV. “He's enjoying his football, but I'm going to stay on him because I know there's more to come. He's come here and I think he can be a big player for us moving forward. I'm demanding more and more each day, and if Todd keeps reacting, he'll go on to be a very good Rangers player in the future.”
Indeed, it was his contribution to the team’s fifth goal of the afternoon which caught the eye. The midfielder was involved in an impressive 60-pass move, driving through the heart of the St. Mirren midfield before threading a gorgeous pass through to Arfield who made no mistake with his finish.
“By the end of the game we had them in a good place and we were asking about shifting the play and holding our position,” Beale told RangersTV after the match. “We had the ball for a long time, and I believe it was 60 passes, which is rare to score a goal like that. It was a lovely run by Todd at the end of it and that's what Scott Arfield has made his career on; it was a cheeky little finish when he got in.”
The sequence leading to the goal encapsulated Rangers’ authority on the ball within the game. Although Beale was less than pleased with the manner of the goals which the Gers conceded, the 695 passes which they completed over the course of the match was the second highest in a home league fixture under the Light Blues boss (760 passes completed against Dundee United at Ibrox).
Fashion Jr., meanwhile, was among the goals once again as his diving header just minutes into the second period restored Rangers’ advantage. The Zambian produced another all-action display as he took five shots and issued three key passes (the pass before an attempt at goal) in his attacking role alongside Alfredo Morelos.
The forward was withdrawn in the second half to welcome Rabbi Matondo back from injury – with the Welshman making his first appearance of 2023 – and the winger wasted little time in making an impact. His pull-back to Morelos allowed the Colombian to grab both his 11th league goal of the campaign and equal his Scottish Premiership goal tally from the previous two seasons.
With Arfield replacing Malik Tillman on 76 minutes, the midfielder grabbed his ninth goal of the campaign in all competitions with a deft finish through the legs of Trevor Carson in the St. Mirren goal. Indeed, the 34-year-old requires just one more goal to cap off his second-best scoring season in a Rangers jersey behind his impressive debut campaign back in 2018/19.
“I was upset at half-time and I got into the team a little bit,” Beale commented after the match. “We go and score in the second half then shoot ourselves in the foot, but after that, with the change of system and the substitutes coming on, the last couple of goals were really nice team goals.”
The Light Blues showed a clinical edge in the second half that allowed them to take the game away from St. Mirren, scoring five goals in a league match for the first time since February 2022.
A trip to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen awaits the team this Sunday afternoon in the final league fixture before the split.