Rangers Title Hopes Hang on Win at Love Street
Rangers go into tonight’s game against St Mirren knowing they have to get the three points to keep their SPL title challenge alive. With the final SPL fixtures being played on Thursday Rangers trail title rivals Celtic by three points and anything less than a win in their game in-hand tonight would mean they would have to rely on Celtic slipping up in their final game to have any chance of winning the title.
Rangers visit Love Street tonight without a win in their last five away games. This poor run of form has seen them lose their lead at the top of the SPL and they will need to get back on track tonight.
This match tonight is not going to be easy for Rangers. St Mirren are unbeaten in their last four SPL matches and have kept clean sheets in all of them. With Rangers struggling to find the goals needed to kill off teams in recent matches, it’s likely this game will be a lot closer than the odds being offered by bookmakers would make out.
St Mirren are 17/2 (Bet365) to win at home tonight but given the current form of both sides this could be a good price and there well may be more than Celtic supporters willing to have a bet on the upset. With Rangers needing a win 6/19 (Betfair) and hoping to score a few goals to boost their goal difference we think a St Mirren victory looks unlikely.
With St Mirren keeping so many clean sheets recently and Rangers away form being far from convincing we don’t expect to see a lot of goals in tonight’s game and the under 2.5 goals at 11/10 (Paddy Power) looks to be worth a bet.
Rangers will be without their best player this season Carlos Cuellar, for tonight’s match as he is suspended for one game and his presence will definitely be missed. This may make the normally solid back four more vulnerable and St Mirren could pose more problems in attack than you would normally expect
It’s possible Rangers may change their tactics for this match knowing they need to win by a few goals and they could turn to striker Kris Boyd to supply the extra firepower. Boyd has only put in a few cameo roles recently being used mainly as a substitute, but he is a natural goalscorer and if he is in the starting line-up he is worth backing at 5/1(Partybets) to get the first goal.
Everything would seem to point to a Rangers win tonight but the result may well depend on how well Walter Smith can pick his battle weary men up after Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Motherwell. Some players left the Fir Park pitch at full-time looking as if they’d already lost the title and if they fail to get an early goal, or if they were to go behind tonight their resolve will be severely tested.
We’re going to stick our neck out here a bit and take St Mirren to get an unexpected draw 5/1 (VCbet) and predict the match will end in a 1-1 scoreline 11/1 (Coral)