Unbeaten Rangers welcome a St. Johnstone side who are hard to beat
Rangers are unbeaten in five, St. Johnstone in three. A look at both sides' recent form and what PLZ Predictor members expect at Ibrox.
By Harvey Watkins,
Rangers go into Saturday's meeting with St. Johnstone at Ibrox unbeaten in five Premiership matches, but the most recent of them is the one worth starting with. Last weekend's 2-2 draw away to Dundee FC ended a run of four straight wins. It was also the first time in that sequence that Rangers had conceded more than once.
Rangers: four wins, mostly by the odd goal
Before the trip to Dundee FC, Rangers had won four in a row, and three of those wins finished 1-0. The standout result is the 1-0 win away to Celtic on 20 September. The home wins over St. Mirren and Motherwell came by the same score, and the 3-1 win over Kilmarnock on 10 October is the only one of the four settled by more than a single goal.
At Ibrox in this run they have won all three, scoring five and conceding one. Across all five matches they have scored eight and conceded three. That points to a side whose defending has carried much of the load. The goals have come steadily but not freely, with Rangers scoring more than once in only two of the five games. A team that wins by narrow margins leaves itself less room for error, and the draw last weekend showed how quickly that can go.
St. Johnstone: unbeaten in three
St. Johnstone have won two, drawn two and lost one of their last five, scoring five and conceding five. Their only defeat was 2-0 at home to Celtic on 9 September, and they have not lost since. In that time they have drawn 1-1 with Falkirk, won 1-0 away to Aberdeen and drawn 1-1 with Dundee United last weekend. Earlier, a 2-1 home win over Hibernian opened the run.
They have scored in four of the five, failing only against Celtic. The caveat is that four of those five matches were in Perth. The win at Aberdeen, with a clean sheet, is the only away result in the run. It is an encouraging one, but a single match is thin evidence of how they travel.
How the evidence balances
Celtic are the one opponent both sides have faced recently, and the contrast is plain. Rangers won away to them while St. Johnstone lost at home. One match each is a crude comparison, but it fits the wider picture. Rangers have the stronger form and a perfect home record in this run, and they should be considered favourites.
The case for St. Johnstone getting something rests on their recent resilience and on Rangers' habit of narrow wins. A visiting side that tends to score, against hosts who have just conceded twice, makes a goal for St. Johnstone entirely plausible. My view is that a Rangers win remains the likeliest outcome, probably by a modest margin rather than a comfortable one. A narrow draw would not be a shock.
What PLZ Predictor members expect
Twenty-six PLZ Soccer members have entered their predictions for this fixture in the PLZ Predictor. Ninety-six per cent have gone for a home win and four per cent for a draw, and nobody has picked St. Johnstone. The most popular scoreline is 2-0 to Rangers, chosen by eight members. These are our members' predictions, not odds or a forecast, and they say more about the mood among readers than about the match itself.
Kick-off at Ibrox is at 14:00 on Saturday.