Scottish Premier League Preview: Rangers Vs St Johnstone

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This Scottish Premier League match is due to kick off at 15:00 GMT, on Saturday 27 February 2011, at
Ibrox Park, Glasgow.

Rangers need to have a victory so badly following their heavy defeat to oldest rivals Celtic final time out. No-one in severe football circles is saying that that defeat was terminal for their title challenge, but it undoubtedly did some damage. Rangers will obviously be searching to bounce back from that and a game at Ibrox is just what they will need.

What they don't want is for that game to be against St Johnstone, a team who have recorded victories and near-victories against them in the final couple of seasons, most notably a 4-1 demolition at McDairmid final season.

A close look at how these teams have done in current matches in the Scottish Premier League as nicely as outside it will give us a far better insight into how Saturday's game is likely to unfold:

Rangers' final 5 game record reads...
[Rangers' score very first]
20 February Away -3 vs Celtic
17 February Dwelling 1-1 vs Sporting Lisbon (Uefa Europa League)
12 February House 6- vs Motherwell
6 February Dwelling two-2 vs Celtic (Scottish Cup)
two February Household 1- vs Heart of Midlothian

St Johnstone's last five game record reads...
[St Johnstone's score 1st]
22 February Residence - vs Dundee United
19 February Away -2 vs Inverness Caledonian Thistle
9 February Residence 2- vs Partick Thistle (Scottish Cup)
1 February Household two- vs Hamilton Academicals
29 January Away -1 vs Heart of Midlothian

Note: In analysing the present form of these two teams, I have taken into account their most current games, irrespective of whether these were in the Scottish Premier League or not. You can assume that all of the above matches took location in the Scottish Premier League, except exactly where I have specified otherwise, in the brackets.

Despite the fact that Rangers have no actual form going into this game, they do have the better players and they do have home benefit. It will be interesting to see if Davie Weir plays - he's starting to show his age now, and his famous positioning sense, football brain, and anticipation abilities are beginning to look as if they don't quite compensate as considerably for his lack of pace.

St Johnstone are also lacking form going into this game, but they don't have anything obvious to offset that with, and it looks like its going to be a routine Rangers victory.