Emmanuel Fernandez’s Rangers vs St Mirren – preview, team news, tips and h2h

Rangers host St Mirren at Ibrox on Sunday, August 16, in the last 16 of the Premier Sports Cup, and the visitors arrive as the reigning holders of the trophy they lifted against Celtic just eight months ago, Afrik-Foot reports.

Derek McInnes takes charge of his fifth competitive match since replacing Danny Rohl in the summer, still searching for a first win. Meanwhile Craig McLeish’s St Mirren have won both their opening Premiership fixtures and sit second in the table, giving Sunday’s tie the feel of a genuine upset opportunity rather than a routine cup formality for the home crowd.

Match preview: Rangers vs St Mirren

McInnes has not won any of his first four games since arriving from Hearts, a run that reads a draw with Dundee United, defeat away to Jagiellonia Bialystok, defeat at home to Hibernian and a 1-1 second-leg draw with the Poles that sent Rangers out of Europe on a 3-2 aggregate.

Every one of those four matches has finished with both teams scoring, a pattern that says as much about a leaky Rangers defence as it does about their attacking intent.

Boos rang around Ibrox at full time against Jagiellonia on Thursday, and McInnes has changed formation before every one of his four matches so far, switching to a back three against the Poles because of a lack of natural cover at left-back.

Ben Godfrey and Tuur Rommens are both out with injuries picked up in the opening weeks, leaving the head coach short of options across the back line heading into a fifth game in charge.

St Mirren, by contrast, have started the season with genuine conviction, winning 2-0 away at Falkirk before edging out St Johnstone 1-0 at home last weekend. Killian Phillips scored both goals at Falkirk before converting a penalty against St Johnstone after goalkeeper Jacob Chapman had saved Jamie Gullan’s spot kick at the other end.

That result put St Mirren second in the Premiership after two rounds, a stark contrast to a 2025-26 campaign that finished eleventh and required a play-off win over Partick Thistle just to preserve their top-flight status. The one shining light from that difficult league season was a run to League Cup glory in December, a trophy the Buddies will defend for the first time on Sunday.

Craig McLeish only took permanent charge of St Mirren in June after steadying the ship as interim boss, and his side’s start to this campaign suggests his methods are already bedding in on the training ground.

St Mirren’s head-to-head record against Rangers

Rangers have historically held a heavily dominant record over St Mirren, and the Buddies have not lifted three points from Ibrox often across more than a century of meetings between the two clubs.

Their most recent trip to Govan actually went their way, though, with Mikael Mandron and Toyosi Olusanya scoring in a 2-0 win in February 2025 that secured St Mirren’s first victory in Govan since 1991.

Rangers won the corresponding fixture at Ibrox, Thelo Aasgaard and Arsenal-linked Emmanuel Fernandez scoring either side of half time in a 2-1 win, with Marcus Fraser having a penalty saved and Mandron only pulling one back for the Buddies.

Jonah Ayunga was on target for St Mirren in a 1-1 draw at their own ground in August last year, before Tuur Rommens settled the reverse fixture in March with the only goal of the game as Rangers won 1-0 at the Buddies’ home stadium.

None of those recent scorelines carry much weight as evidence for Sunday, since the teams involved have shifted considerably since, but they do at least show St Mirren are capable of frustrating Rangers even when travelling to Ibrox.

Team news and predicted line-ups for Rangers vs St Mirren

McInnes is working with a genuinely stretched squad, with seven players ruled out and one more a fitness doubt heading into the weekend. Ben Godfrey is out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury sustained on the opening day against Dundee United, while left-back Tuur Rommens will also miss out after suffering a groin injury in the defeat to Hibernian.

Striker Youssef Chermiti faces a significant spell on the sidelines after rupturing his ACL in the same match against Hibs, a cruel blow given his 15 league goals last season, and midfielder Jose Cifuentes remains out following surgery, having not featured for Rangers since December 2023.

Connor Barron returned to the substitutes’ bench against Jagiellonia after missing the opening weeks with a pre-season niggle, and both Bojan Miovski and Cammy Devlin are pushing for recalls to the starting eleven.

St Mirren have their own concerns in defence, with captain Marcus Fraser a doubt after picking up a knock, while centre-back Keanu Baccus is out until the end of the month with an Achilles issue.

Forward Jonah Ayunga is not expected back until the new year following an ACL injury, and goalkeeper Ryan Mullen remains sidelined with a long-term thigh problem, leaving Jacob Chapman as the man between the sticks.

Predicted Rangers XI (4-2-3-1): Pandur, Sterling, Fernandez, Souttar, Nsiala, Barron, Diomande, Aasgaard, Bajrami, Gassama, Shankland.

Predicted St Mirren XI (3-5-2): Chapman, Fraser, King, Freckleton, Richardson, Devaney, Phillips, Gogic, John, Mandron, Young.

Both line-ups are predicted rather than confirmed, and captain Marcus Fraser’s involvement depends on him passing a late fitness test.

Emmanuel Fernandez and Killian Phillips: the star player duel

Super Eagles centre-back Emmanuel Fernandez, on the radar of Dortmund, has quickly become one of the first names on the Rangers team sheet since his 2.9 million pound move from Peterborough United last year.

The 24-year-old scored five goals in 27 Premiership appearances last season, earned a place in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year, and has been tipped as a future Rangers captain, with Nigeria head coach Eric Chelle already handing him his senior debut this year.

Ireland international Killian Phillips has been the standout performer of St Mirren’s opening two weeks, scoring twice at Falkirk before adding a penalty against St Johnstone.

Both players carry set-piece responsibility for their sides, and how Fernandez copes with St Mirren’s direct approach at corners and free kicks could go a long way to deciding the outcome.

Star player comparison

The managers: Derek McInnes and Craig McLeish

Derek McInnes arrived at Rangers this summer after a solid final season at Hearts, but his start in Govan has been the most difficult of his managerial career at this level.

He has changed his starting shape in every one of his four games so far, moving between a loose 4-4-2, a 4-3-3 and a back three, and has been open about the defensive injury crisis forcing his hand.

His preferred principles, built around two strikers, man-marking out of possession and quick vertical progression, have not yet had the chance to settle because of the chopping and changing.

Craig McLeish is only 36 and stepped into the St Mirren job on an interim basis in March after Stephen Robinson’s exit for Aberdeen, guiding the Buddies to Premiership survival through the play-offs before being handed the role permanently in June.

He has spoken about wanting his side to be horrible to play against, and early results back that up, with St Mirren keeping things tight defensively while making the most of their attacking moments in both league wins so far.

Tactical preview: how Rangers vs St Mirren could play out

If Rangers do set up in a back four, as predicted above, expect Nedim Bajrami to operate between the lines with license to drift wide and combine with whichever full-back pushes on.

St Mirren’s back three, with wing-backs Jayden Richardson and Declan John pushing high, is built to overload the width Rangers might otherwise dominate through Djeidi Gassama and Aasgaard.

That shape also protects Killian Phillips and Alexandros Gogic in central midfield, freeing them to press higher and force Rangers into the long, hurried passes that have hurt them in every match so far this season.

Rangers’ biggest tactical vulnerability remains the left side of defence, where neither Rommens nor a like-for-like replacement is available, and St Mirren’s front two of Mikael Mandron and Jake Young could be set the specific task of running at whoever fills in there.

Set pieces could prove decisive given both sides’ reliance on them, with Fernandez a threat at one end and St Mirren’s wing-backs delivering into the box at the other.

Rangers vs St Mirren prediction and betting tips

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Our Rangers vs St Mirren score prediction

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