RANGERS will travel to Perth on Saturday night and McDiarmid Park will be transformed into a home game for them when they play St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup.
It's hard to know just what Saints were thinking when they made the decision to not only hand over three of their four stands to Rangers fans, but shunt their own punters off their usual seats and charge them £30 for the privilege.
Unsurprisingly, it's left them at a massive disadvantage for their own home game and they had only sold a paltry 300 tickets at the last count as their fans boycotted the match.
It's hard enough to play the Old Firm in a Cup tie without massively disadvantaging yourself, but that's not Rangers' problem and Michael Beale's men go into the game in good form and will play a Saints team in freefall seemingly.
Callum Davidson masterminded a famous penalty shootout win at Ibrox when Saints won the Scottish Cup during Covid, but his current side have lost five games in a row.
Rangers remain unbeaten under Beale, but they maintain this curious habit of having to come from behind to win games as they did twice again this week against Aberdeen in the League Cup semi-final and at Kilmarnock in midweek.
How the bookies view it
Rangers are solid odds-on shots across the board and 4/11 is just about the best price going at SBK.
St Johnstone are 8/1 with Betfred and the same firm offer 4/1 for the draw.
Recent head to heads
Rangers' last defeat came in Perth under Giovanni van Bronckhorst in November, although they also won 4-0 at Ibrox this term.
In the last six meetings at McDiarmid Park, Saints have won once and drawn twice, with a couple of one-goal defeats.
Players to watch
Ex-Rangers winger Jamie Murphy netted against Livingston last week and he remains a threat for the hosts. He is 11/2 with William Hill to score.
Alfredo Morelos swatted aside criticism of his physique and halted a personal goal drought when he scored in Ayrshire on Wednesday. The Colombian is 11/10 to score on Saturday night with Coral.
Anything else catch the eye?
Rangers usually get a tough game in Perth and they may have another one on Saturday.
They do look too strong surely for a Saints side on a poor run, but they have a bad habit of conceding goals and the value bet here is a Rangers win and both teams to score at 11/5 with bet365.
Since that defeat at Perth, Rangers have won eight games and six of them have been by a one-goal margin. That's well worth having a go on again at 11/4 again with bet365.
This Scottish Cup match between St Johnstone and Rangers will be played on Jan 21, 2023 and kick off at 17:30. Check below for our tipsters best St Johnstone vs Rangers prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
