Rangers edged past St Mirren 1-0 at Ibrox thanks to a stoppage-time goal from substitute Bojan Miovski, extending their winning streak to four matches in the Scottish Premiership.
Derek McInnes returned to the technical area after serving a two-game touchline ban, and he watched his side struggle to find a breakthrough for large stretches of the contest. St Mirren goalkeeper Jacob Chapman was the standout performer in the opening half, producing a series of saves to deny the hosts, who also missed several presentable chances of their own.
Craig McLeish's visitors grew increasingly assured after the interval, with Fraser Taylor spurning a clear opportunity to put St Mirren ahead. As the match wore on without a goal, unrest began to build among the Ibrox faithful, echoing the discontent that had marked the early weeks of the campaign. St Mirren had been thrashed 5-1 by Rangers at the same venue in last month's Premier Sports Cup meeting, making their improved second-half showing all the more notable.
Just as the game appeared destined for a stalemate, Miovski, who had replaced Djeidi Gassama, struck in the dying seconds of normal time to snatch victory for Rangers and send the home crowd into celebration.
Elsewhere, Celtic maintained their flawless start to the defense of their title with a 1-0 win at McDiarmid Park against St Johnstone. Summer recruit Mika Baur opened his account for the club, converting from close range shortly after the restart to settle the contest.
The visitors' passage to victory was not without alarm, however, as debutant goalkeeper Sam Johnstone was called upon to make a crucial first-half stop, denying St Johnstone's Joel Cotterill what looked a certain goal at the time.
Celtic manager Martin O'Neill used the fixture to rotate his squad ahead of a high-stakes Old Firm derby away to Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup this coming Sunday. Established figures including Camilo Duran, Benjamin Nygren, and Kieran Tierney were held in reserve on the substitutes' bench, while defender Cameron Carter-Vickers was rested entirely from the matchday squad.
Though not at their most fluent, Celtic did enough to see out another league win, their sixth in a row this season and their thirteenth consecutive victory across all competitions, a run stretching back to the final weeks of the previous campaign.
The result keeps Celtic firmly in control at the top of the Premiership table with a perfect record, while Rangers' late heroics against St Mirren will offer encouragement to a support anxious for signs of consistency and momentum going into the derby weekend.
Attention across Scottish football now turns to Sunday's Old Firm clash in the Premier Sports Cup, a fixture that promises high stakes for both clubs as they look to carry their respective league form into cup competition.
Based on reporting from The Guardian.