The Ibrox side left Paisley with all three points after digging out a big victory against the Buddies

Dan Neil hailed Rangers ’ winning mindset in Paisley - but admits the Ibrox side should have made life easier for themselves by killing off St Mirren earlier.

It was Saturday night fever for the Light Blue Legions as Derek McInnes ’ team claimed a hard-earned 2-0 win over the Buddies thanks to Ryan Naderi’s penalty and a second-half Neil strike. But Gers had Ivor Pandur to thank for keeping the clean sheet as the Croatian keeper pulled off two vital saves to deny Saints subs Eseosa Sule and Luke Thomas.

That spared McInnes’ men a nervy finish and Neil confessed his side still aren’t as clinical as he’d like - despite chalking up a 12th successive game without defeat. Naderi and strike partner Kevin Kelsy both passed up golden opportunities to add to Gers’ advantage, while Minsu Kim found himself crowded out midway through the first half after he’d waited too long before pulling the trigger.

The Ibrox skipper - recalled after being benched for last week’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Aberdeen - said: “Every good team just finds a way to win. Obviously we'd like to win by four or five goals every single week, but unfortunately that's just not football. I do think it's an area that we can improve on.

“There's been too many games this year where maybe we don't get that second goal and it's a bit nervy. Teams get a little bit of confidence off that and the momentum shifts. It's definitely something that we can improve on, putting teams to bed when we do go 1-0 up and go 1-0 up early doors when we're creating chances.

“But at the same time, finding a way to win is the most important way and whether that's 1-0 or 5-0, at the end of the day it's three points. That's what it was on Saturday night. Thankfully we got the second, which made it slightly more comfortable. The most important thing is just making sure we win the game.”

The pressure was on Gers to prove they could win on the road having gone seven weeks without an away triumph. Their last two trips outside of Glasgow ended in frustrating 2-2 draws with Dundee and Hearts. But Neil reckons Gers passed a test of their character with flying colours in Paisley.

“Yes, definitely,” he said. “Coming away from home at any time is always a tough game and potential banana skin games. It's important that the mentality of the group is right, which it is, and I think you saw that on Saturday night. Listen, our home form speaks for itself but the last two away results haven't been great for us.

“So it was important to put that hoodoo of those two results behind us and make sure that we win the game. Do I sense that character and confidence building? Yes, but I think it's important that we take each test in isolation as well and not look too far ahead. We certainly did that for this game.

“It was the last game before the international break, so the full focus was on making sure that we got the three points tonight. However way we did it, it didn't matter. Just get the three points. There was some good football played tonight for the majority of the game and we also dug in when we had to. That's credit to every single player on that dressing room.”