St Mirren’s European place confirmed as Dundee beaten by Rangers

St Mirren have sealed a first European qualification in 37 years after Dundee lost 5-2 against Rangers.

Dundee needed a victory at Ibrox to maintain hopes of leapfrogging Stephen Robinson’s side into fifth place in the cinch Premiership and went two ahead in the first half through goals from defenders Jordan McGhee and Antonio Portales.

However, Rangers netted four second-half goals to ensure St Mirren have achieved their goal ahead of their penultimate game against Hearts in Paisley on Wednesday night.

St Mirren last season secured a first top-six finish since the 1980s and have gone one better this time to seal a place in the Europa Conference League second qualifying round.

Key questions answered as Aberdeen continue remarkable form under Jimmy Thelin

Diarmaid Nash into World 4-Wall Handball Championships semi-finals

“I believed that we could,” Robinson said earlier. “You need to do what we did the season before, which we did. We were very good against the bottom six teams, which we targeted for points.

“We haven’t been as good against the top-six sides and that is something that we need to put the both of them together.

“We focused on a lot of things. Could we become a more possession-based team? We have done, up by nearly 12 per cent, which is a big uplift. We created a lot of chances.

“We are still looking at those statistics to see how we can improve next season – small marginal gains to improve every season.”