Rangers handed timely title boost in scrappy St Mirren win as Danny Rohl reacts to Hearts slip-up question
The Rangers boss has been boosted by the return of a key midfielder for the Premiership run-in
Danny Rohl watched his Rangers side reignite their Scottish Premiership title challenge with a drab 1-0 victory over struggling St Mirren in Paisley before admitting recent performances have given him belief that they can end the season as champions.
The Light Blues managed to grind out three precious points in challenging conditions in Paisley this afternoon, with left-back Tuur Rommens scoring the only goal of a nervy contest after 31 minutes.
The result the Ibrox club within three points of leaders Hearts, who fell to a surprise defeat on Saturday, with Rohl also boosted by the return of fit-again midfielder Connor Barron, who returned from a knee injury to make his first appearance since mid-January.
Barron’s return will come as a timely boost for Rohl, who can now call on four excellent options to fill the number six position.
“Yeah, very happy,” the German boss responded when asked by GlasgowWorld how satisfying it is to have the Scotland international back to strengthen his midfield options for the title run-in. “He’s worked really hard in the last couple of weeks.
“There’s a big competition for the number six position at the moment with Nico, Tochi, Connor and Dio all nearly available. So it’s not easy for me because all four deserve to play because of how they train. They give me different profiles, but just two of them can start, one will be on the bench and one will sometimes not be in the squad.
“That is tough (for me to decide), but it’s not just that position. It’s important to highlight the competition on the left side too gives me a fantastic headache. With Jayden, we have a guy who also likes to play on the front-foot as well as Tuur, so this is important.”
Danny Rohl delivers ‘smiling’ Hearts revelation after leaders slip-up
Rangers knew they had to dig deep at the SMiSA Stadium to keep pace with the top two, but they were made to work extremely hard for their victory against a Buddies team who are on a downward trajectory and without a manager at the helm following Stephen Robinson’s sudden departure.
Discussing his side’s performance, Rohl stated: “We are happy today, I think after three good performances without the right result, it was most important that we got the win today. It’s about winning games now and we’ve won our first cup final.
“The energy before the game in the dressing room was fantastic, but we had to take the result and we did. The table now looks a better than it did before this matchday. We kept a clean sheet which we haven’t done in recent games, but I wish we took more of our chances.
“Our mood during the week was OK. We spoke about this and recognised how strong the performances were (against Celtic). With this, I see my group growing. There’s never a day where I doubt my group. This is just a small step and at this stage of the season it’s about winning your cup finals.”
After fellow title challengers Celtic beat fourth-placed Motherwell 3-1 and leaders Hearts lost 1-0 at Kilmarnock on Saturday, Rohl admits he wasn’t surprised to hear that more points had been dropped in the fight to finish top of the pile.
Quizzed specifically on how much of a lift the Hearts result gave him, Rohl replied: “I would be lying if I was not smiling after hearing this result, but this is normal. We had to deliver again and it goes a little bit up and down now. The team who is consistent and getting the right results will win this league.”