George O’Neill, BBC Sport Scotland
Rangers head to McDiarmid Park on Saturday knowing that nothing but a win will do if they are to stay in touch at the top of the Scottish Premiership, and ease some of the pressure surrounding manager Michael Beale.
Amid of brutal run of fixtures, Beale will have marked St Johnstone away as one of the easier games in the calendar, but he only has to look at the end of his predecessor’s reign to know that this is no gimme.
The last time Rangers went to Perth in the league, a James Brown wonder goal consigned Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side to a 2-1 defeat, and just two games later the Dutchman lost his job.
Beale’s side have started the season slowly. Missing out on the Champions League after a crushing defeat to PSV Eindhoven has been compounded by league defeats to Kilmarnock and Celtic, and they trail their Glasgow rivals by four points after just four league games.