Two of the Scottish Premiership’s top-four sides meet at McDiarmid Park as St Johnstone play host to Rangers, with both sides keen to ensure they do not fall further behind the top two. St Johnstone started the season in brilliant form, going unbeaten for the opening five matches. However, that form has dropped off and they have lost two of their last three. Just one win from their last five league games came courtesy of an 84th minute winner against Hamilton a few weeks back.
St Johnstone
They were completely outplayed in a 3-0 defeat at Aberdeen before the international break and the manager will undoubtedly demand a vastly improved performance from his players here. However, despite the two recent defeats, St Johnstone are unbeaten in four league matches at home this season. Recent League Form (Last 6) – LWLDDW.
Rangers
Rangers came into the season with hope of at least challenging for the title, but things aren’t going to plan. Inconsistency is the key word to describe Rangers at present, with four wins, two draws, and two defeats from their eight games. They have only managed back-to-back victories once and their 4-1 win at Hamilton before the international break prevented them going three games without a victory.
They do have the second best away record in the Scottish Premiership at this stage, with three wins and a draw from four matches, and that will give the players confidence ahead of this fixture. Recent League Form (Last 6) – WLDWWD.
Team News
Both teams head into this match with just one notable absence apiece. St Johnstone are without defender Ricky Foster, who was given a suspension following a hearing for excessive misconduct last week. This followed an incident where the player kicked the referee’s door after a match against Dundee. Rangers only absence is Lee Wallace, who has been out with a groin injury since the middle of September and isn’t expected to be fit again until at least the middle of November.
Head to Head
In 38 previous meetings between these sides, since September 1997, Rangers hold a clear advantage. They have won 27, St Johnstone have won six, and five have been draws. St Johnstone have managed to pick up just one victory in the last thirteen meetings, and haven’t beaten Rangers at home since March 2010. The most recent meeting was in May this year, with Rangers winning 2-1 away from home.
Betting Odds and Predictions
With a team unbeaten at home playing host to a team who haven’t lost away, with them sitting level on points and just one place apart in the league, we expected extremely close betting odds. However, we are a little surprised to find Rangers are a clear favourite for the victory. Ladbrokes have the visitors priced at 4/7, with St Johnstone at a generous 19/4. The draw looks fantastic value at 3/1.
Punters who don’t want to back the draw, but are worried it could mess their bet up, can use the ‘Draw No Bet’ market. The odds are shorter in this, with Rangers at 2/9 and St Johnstone at 3/1, but punters will receive their stake back if the game ends level. All but one of St Johnstone’s home games have seen both teams score, while both sides have netted in all four of Rangers away games in the league this season. This makes it highly likely that both teams will score here, and that is priced at odds of 4/5.
So, those who think Rangers will win this match could do well to back them in the Win and BTTS market at odds of 9/4. Michael O’Halloran has scored in three of St Johnstone’s four home games this season, so could be a solid bet in the Anytime Scorer market at odds of 3/1. For Rangers, their most likely scorer looks to be either top-scorer Alfredo Morelos or Graham Dorrans. Morelos has scored six league goals so far and is priced at 11/10 whilst Dorrans is 23/10 to add to his tally of four league goals.
Top Betting Tip
Our top betting tip for this match is Both Teams to Score and Rangers to Win at odds of 9/4 with Ladbrokes.