Preview: St Mirren vs. Rangers – prediction, team news, lineups

Preview: St Mirren vs. Rangers – prediction, team news, lineups

Rangers, the Scottish Premiership’s title contenders,

head to Paisley to face a struggling St Mirren team on Saturday lunchtime.

Philippe Clement’s team achieved what they needed to do when they returned to league action in midweek,

narrowing the distance on Celtic to five points.

Rangers opened their league campaign with a 3-0 demolition of Hibernian in the capital on Wednesday,

capitalizing on one of their games in hand over Celtic.

It puts them five points behind their bitter rivals going into the weekend,

with their next game in hand coming against Ross County in mid-February.

Clement will know his side would likely need to pick up the maximum of nine points before that game,

with Celtic back in fantastic form.

Their record against St Mirren should give them plenty of confidence,

especially as they also play bottom-placed Livingston and an improving Aberdeen in the next three matches.

Rangers have won 40 of their 48 competitive games with St Mirren,

and they are unbeaten in their last 11, winning 10.

Their three defeats have all come in Paisley, however the last in the league was in 2011,

and St Mirren have only beaten them in a cup quarter-final since then, in 2020.

The next Old Firm derby isn’t until the last matchday of the regular season,

meaning Rangers must retain their spotless record if they hope to stay in the title chase come April.

St Mirren’s terrible record versus Rangers is consistent with their recent trend,

as they plummeted down the table in late 2023.

They appeared to be candidates for third place earlier in the season, but now sit 10 points behind Hearts.

Stephen Robinson’s team won 22 points in their first 13 games and was only behind the top two,

but they only took seven points in the next nine games, dropping to sixth.

Their dreams of finishing in the top six suddenly appear under threat,

as even though they have six and seven-point buffers over Aberdeen and Dundee,

they have played three games more, and are in considerably worse form.

With no games to catch up on, this will be their first league game since losing 3-0 to Celtic here earlier this month,

but they were in cup action last weekend, defeating Queen of the South due to Alex Gogic’s second-half strike.

Team News

Toyosi Olusanya’s red card in the defeat to Celtic means the St Mirren forward will be sidelined for this game,

while Ryan Strain is the only other absentee with groin trouble.

The hosts have made some moves in the transfer market, and Hyeok-kyu Kwon made

his debut in the cup triumph over Queen of the South after joining on loan from Celtic.

However, there has been a recent departure, with Alex Greive moving on loan to Championship side Dundee United.

Rangers also used the loan market this month, bringing in Fabio Silva from Wolverhampton Wanderers,

and he made his first start in the midweek win.

With Danilo, Abdallah Sima, and Kemar Roofe all out injured,

Silva can hope to preserve his spot in the team after leading the charge to victory.

Kieran Dowell and Ben Davies are also uncertain following recent setbacks,

and Clement may go with a same XI despite the short turnaround from Wednesday.

Ridvan Yilmaz scored Rangers’ first league goal on Tuesday,

and opposite full-back James Tavernier has an excellent record against St Mirren,

having scored six times in his career.

Steven Davis, 39, announced his retirement from professional football on

Thursday after a year off due to a knee injury.

He also served as manager after Michael Beale was fired earlier this season.

St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Hemming; Bolton, Gogic, Taylor; Fraser, Boyd-Munce, Flynn, Kiltie, Tanser; Ayunga, Mandron

Rangers possible starting lineup:
Butland; Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar, Yilmaz; Lundstram, Raskin, Cantwell; McCausland, Fabio Silva, Matondo

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