First Team
Match preview: Saints v Rangers
27th December 2016
Tuesday 27th December
St. Johnstone face Rangers on Wednesday evening at McDiarmid Park in their second last fixture of 2016. Saints will look to build on Thursday night's victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, which saw them move to within a point of third place Hearts in the Premiership table. It was all square when Rangers and St Johnstone met earlier in the year, a superb Blair Alston goal secured a point for the Saints in a 1-1 draw at Ibrox. The game will also mark the return of former Saintee Micheal O'Halloran to McDiarmid. The forward moved to Rangers in January of this year.
The visitors come into the fixture in a fine run of form. Rangers' 1-0 home victory over Inverness on Christmas Eve marked their fourth victory in a row. The Ibrox outfit are second in the league - 11 points ahead of Saints - but trail Celtic by 14 points.
Murray Davidson, who scored the winning goal against Kilmarnock, is suspended but Steven MacLean returns. Both Micheal Coulson and Ally Gilchrist remain unavailable due to injury.
On the match, Tommy Wright said: "Rangers are expected to win every game they go into. They come into this game in a good run of form but we've only lost six games ourself this season.
"They'll have more of the ball than us but if we use it well when we have it, we can cause them problems in their half.
“We will have to make a change because of Murray’s ban but you always know he’ll pick up bookings. We have options with the likes of Paul Paton as well. Murray didn’t play against Rangers the last time and we got a good result.”
Match preview by Joshua Barrie
ADMISSION
Tickets for the Rangers areas of the stadium for this match are now sold out.
Tickets remain available to St Johnstone supporters ONLY – season ticket holders requiring additional tickets, Saints fans who received a voucher when paying cash at our recent home game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC and others on the club databases.
Saints fans should call 01738 455000 or come down to the Ticket Office in person on Wednesday between 9.30am-5pm.
Half Season Tickets remain on sale from the Ticket Office and come into effect from the Rangers match. Get more info HERE.