3 talking points as Rangers rip sorry St Mirren to shreds thanks to scorching Kemar Roofe hat trick

Rangers bounced back from their Portuguese pain as they dished out a Paisley pummelling with Kemar Roofe grabbing a hat-trick to warm up for their crucial return against Braga.

Roofe took his tally to the season for 16 with a treble against St Mirren and Joe Aribo netted a scorcher as Stephen Robinson’s side were pushed deeper into relegation trouble in the final pre-split fixture.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men had to win to keep their wafer-thin Scottish Premiership hopes alive and they strolled to three points, albeit against opposition on a horror run of form.

Still, the Ibrox men did the job with first half injuries to John Lundstram and Filip Helander the only thing to take the shine off the victory.

The win cut the gap at the top back to six points to leaders Celtic ahead of Thursday’s Euro showdown against Braga and what looks likely to be an Old Firm double header in the Scottish Cup followed by the first game after the split.

The visitors made five changes from the side that started in Portugal but it was still a strong looking line-up.

Aaron Ramsey failed to get off the bench in Braga but was in the XI here while Ryan Jack and Calvin Bassey were left out of the squad with Thursday’s Europa League return in mind.

Van Bronckhorst would have been hoping for the luxury of being to take some of his key men off if they could build up a commanding lead.

And that looked to be on the cards when Rangers grabbed an early lead to give them a much-needed confidence boost.

James Tavernier’s cross found Ryan Kent at the back post and the Englishman floated a ball in for Roofe and he glanced a header into the net.

The decision to go with a strong line-up could have been viewed as a risky move by Van Bronckhorst given