St Mirren will be hoping that lightning strikes twice against Rangers when they welcome the Scottish Premiership leaders to Paisley for Wednesday's top-flight clash.

Jim Goodwin's men eased to a 2-0 victory over Ross County last time out, while Rangers scraped past Hibernian 1-0 to remain 16 points clear at the top of the pile.

Match preview

St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin pictured on August 9, 2020 © Reuters

St Mirren did what no other team have done this season on December 16 - beat Rangers. Goodwin's men came up against a weakend Gers outfit in the Scottish League Cup, but St Mirren nevertheless came up trumps in a five-goal thriller to dump Steven Gerrard's men out of the competition in the quarter-finals.

That victory over the runaway leaders stretched St Mirren's unbeaten run across all competitions to 10 matches, although that streak has since been ended by Hibs, and Goodwin knows that his crop are up against it to record another historic win over Rangers this week.

Goodwin's side were kept at bay for 76 minutes against Ross County - by which point the league's basement side only had nine men on the field - but St Mirren made their advantage count as goals from Marcus Fraser and Kristian Dennis saw this week's hosts return to winning ways on Boxing Day.

St Mirren are slowly starting to creep up the table and are now only three points adrift of sixth-placed Livingston with two games in hand, although only Ross County have scored fewer goals than St Mirren's 14 this season.

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard pictured on November 22, 2020 © Reuters

Rangers quickly recovered from their cup exit to St Mirren and are looking increasingly likely to end Celtic's reign of dominance in the Scottish football scene.

Gerrard's men extended their winning streak in the top flight to 12 matches with a narrow 1-0 win over Hibs last time out, with Ianis Hagi bagging the all-important winner - Rangers' 54th league goal of the season - in that one.

Celtic do have three games in hand, but Rangers are showing no signs of slowing down amid a gruelling fixture schedule and have taken the spoils in their last six away outings in the league - shipping only four goals on the road all season.

Gerrard will certainly not be underestimating St Mirren having already lost to them this season, even though six places and 35 points separate the two teams in the Scottish Premiership table.

The Rangers boss has already admitted that he has tough decisions to make for this midweek encounter, with the league leaders next facing Celtic in the weekend's Old Firm.

St Mirren Scottish Premiership form: WDWWLW
St Mirren form (all competitions): DWWWLW

Rangers Scottish Premiership form: WWWWWW
Rangers form (all competitions): WWLWWW

Team News

Rangers celebrate Scott Arfield's goal against Standard Liege in the Europa League on December 3, 2020 © Reuters

St Mirren's Brandon Mason is back for this one after serving a suspension against Ross County, and the 23-year-old could challenge Junior Morias for a spot in midfield.

Goodwin has no fresh injury concerns from the win over Ross County, and Dennis is pushing for a start after getting off the mark for the season at the weekend.

Rangers midfielder Scott Arfield lasted just six minutes after being brought on as a substitute against Hibs, with the 32-year-old not expected to feature in this one after being forced off through injury on Boxing Day.

Arfield joins fellow absentees Ryan Jack and Nikola Katic on the sidelines, but George Edmundson and Jordan Jones have served their seven-game bans for coronavirus protocol breaches and are ready to play.

Gerrard has confirmed that changes are possible for this encounter, with Alfredo Morelos, Filip Helander and Bongani Zungu all waiting in the wings.

St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Alnwick; Fraser, Shaughnessy, McCarthy, Tait; McAllister, Erhahon, Doyle-Hayes, McGrath, Mason; Dennis

Rangers possible starting lineup:
McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic; Kamara, Aribo, Zungu; Hagi, Morelos, Kent

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We say: St Mirren 1-3 Rangers

Rangers may feel slightly apprehensive about the prospect of another trip to Paisley, and Gerrard's men are sure to have one eye on their crunch match with Celtic at the weekend. Goodwin's side will fancy their chances if Gerrard does shuffle the pack, but we cannot envisage St Mirren defying the odds a second time and are backing Rangers to get the job done.

Top betting tip

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Data Analysis

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Rangers win with a probability of 77.29%. A draw had a probability of 14.9% and a win for St Mirren had a probability of 7.78%.

The most likely scoreline for a Rangers win was 0-2 with a probability of 13.49%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-3 (11.09%) and 0-1 (10.93%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.1%), while for a St Mirren win it was 1-0 (2.88%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 13.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-2 win for Rangers in this match.