St Johnstone boss Callum Davidson is taking nothing from Rangers’ recent defeat at St Mirren as he prepares to host the Premiership leaders on Wednesday night.
Steven Gerrard’s side were knocked out of the Betfred Cup quarter-finals last Wednesday night when Conor McCarthy’s injury-time strike for a 3-2 win in Paisley ended the Light Blues 27-game unbeaten start to the season.
Rangers bounced back with a 3-1 home win over Motherwell on Saturday when St Johnstone also lost 3-2 to the Buddies.
Davidson, who will be without suspended the Jason Kerr – who was sent off in Paisley – surveyed Rangers’ only defeat so far this season and said: “I just think it was one of those games against St Mirren.
“They defended really well and goals are massive and the timing of goals are so important.
“St Mirren got it right against them. I wouldn’t read too much into that.
“Rangers are a good team, a good squad, so I won’t be reading anything at all into that.
“They have been outstanding, especially in Europe. They have an unbelievable shape and they work extremely hard off the shape.
“They can vary their games and performances have been at a high level for the majority of the season.
“Hopefully they can have an off night on Wednesday and give us a little opportunity to try to get a result.
“It is going to be a really tough game. We need to dust ourselves down and forget about the game on Saturday.
“We are playing Rangers and need to make sure we keep them as quiet as we can and frustrate them as much as possible because they are a top-quality side and have a lot of confidence just now.
“We need to be fully focused for 90 minutes.
“I think with Rangers, if you can get that first goal or frustrate them, then you have a chance but similar to Celtic, if you concede early it’s going to be a long, long night.”
