At some stage, you would suspect Rangers are going to find their groove under Derek McInnes.

But until then, they will happily settle for just getting points on the board. How they go about it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

This hard-fought victory in Paisley — much like so many of Rangers’ Premiership wins this season — was all about substance over style.

Yes, there were flashes of quality here and there. But it was more to do with doing the ugly stuff well than anything else. Fortunately for McInnes, his side are proving to be adept at doing so.

It’s a handy habit to have at their disposal. We saw it in recent draws at Dundee and Hearts last month, managing to come away with something when they probably deserved nothing.

With nobody knowing what version of Celtic are going to turn up on any given week, all Rangers can do is stay within touching distance of the league leaders — a point in front ahead of their meeting with Kilmarnock this afternoon — until they come to blows again in the new year.

Rangers wasted no time getting themselves on the front foot. St Mirren barely got a kick in the opening exchanges, and on the odd occasion they did, possession was turned over far too easily.

Badredine Bouanani had the visitors’ first effort of the night on six minutes, cutting inside from the right flank before pulling the trigger from 20 yards, but it lacked the power to properly test Jacob Chapman in the Saints goal.

The keeper had to be far more alert five minutes later, pulling off a wonderful reaction stop to deny Ryan Naderi finishing off Kevin Kelsy’s headed knockdown. You would have put your house on the in-form Czech finding the net.

Emmanuel Fernandez headed over from the resulting corner.

Having finally settled down, St Mirren gave their opponents a perfect opportunity to take the lead, when Samuel Ramos brought down James Penrice on the angle of the Buddies’ box.

There didn’t appear to be a great deal of contact, but it didn’t take long for VAR to confirm referee Nick Walsh’s decision.

Naderi stepped up to do what he failed to do moments earlier, coolly slotting into the bottom corner to register his ninth goal in all competitions this season.

From looking as if he was likely to be on his way out of Ibrox over the summer, the 23-year-old has become one of the first names on McInnes’ team sheet.

And perhaps the most exciting thing from a Rangers perspective is that he is still a million miles from being the finished article. But playing with this sort of confidence, he’s only going to get better.

He was involved in a lovely free-flowing counter shortly after the half-hour mark, with the ball eventually falling to Kim Min-su on the penalty spot. However, the South Korean delayed getting his shot off and the chance was gone.

When running full-flight at defences, the 20-year-old is a delight to watch in that No10 role.

There isn’t anyone in the country better at finding pockets of space between the lines and taking the ball on the turn. But for all that there is to enjoy about his game, his decision-making in the key moments undoubtedly needs work.

A woeful ball out from Olwethu Makhanya set up a two-v-two for the hosts before the break, with Ramos drilling straight at Ivor Pandur from inside the area. With the whole goal to aim at, the Spaniard should have done much better.

The same goes for Jake Young, who blasted high and wide from a promising position a minute later.

As dominant as Rangers were, you never got the feeling their lead was particularly secure, such is their tendency to play themselves into trouble every now and then.

Fernandez is the worst culprit for it. Fortunately for him, his recovery pace gets him out of jail more often than not. He needed it on a couple of occasions here.

A delightful threaded ball from Bouanani found the feet of Min-su inside the box on 47 minutes but under heavy pressure, he was unable to prod beyond Chapman who’d rushed off his line to meet him. It was hard to be too critical of the Rangers midfielder this time.

Chapman was once again called into action to thwart Kelsy from close range after the Venezuelan escaped the clutches of his marker to collect Min-su’s pass in behind.

He then skewed an effort wide at the back post from an excellent Nico Raskin delivery from the right. It was a night on which very little came off for the big man in front of goal.

To his credit, he kept plugging away, and played a key role in Rangers’ doubling their advantage just after the hour mark, with his driving run causing a bit of chaos in the Buddies backline, before captain Dan Neil swept a loose ball into the bottom corner via the aid of a big deflection to give Chapman absolutely no chance of saving.

With his first touch, substitute Eseosa Sule wasted a glorious chance to reduce the deficit after being left all alone at the back post to stab home Declan John’s cross.

With the ball seemingly destined for the back of the net, Rangers keeper Pandur produced a stunning save on the stretch to turn the ball round the post.

The Croatian’s signing went somewhat under the radar over the summer, but he has demonstrated time and time again that he is a man for the big occasion. He’ll win this side plenty of points between now and the end of the season.

St Mirren came into this one having won just once in their past eight, but you wouldn’t have guessed they were struggling for confidence given the way in which they threw everything at the game in an effort to get a result.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, with Luke Thomas testing Pandur from range before Calvin Ramsay’s follow-up header clipped the post.

That would be as close as Saints would come, as Rangers dug in to grind out an ugly — but ultimately deserved — win on the road.

They will need to be far better, far more consistently if they want to get their hands on the Premiership title come May. But that’s a worry for another day.

Over to you, Celtic.