Old Firm Derby Preview: Rangers and Celtic Gear Up for Clash
By the time the Old Firm step out at Ibrox on Sunday in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final, the Scottish Premiership table could already have that familiar look.
Rangers and Celtic both go again on Wednesday night. One at home, one on the road. Both with a chance to tighten their grip on the top end of the league before they collide.
Rangers welcome St Mirren to Govan. Celtic head up the A9 to face a resurgent St Johnstone in Perth. The dress rehearsal starts now.
Rangers building momentum – but St Mirren won’t scare easily
Rangers are chasing a fourth straight league win, yet they begin the night looking up at St Mirren, level on points but behind the Paisley side on goal difference. It’s an early-season quirk that underlines just how sharp the visitors have been.
Craig McLeish’s team have come out swinging. After dropping points in their opening two league games and crashing out of Europe, they’ve settled, tightened up and started to play with conviction. The head coach has been rewarded with the Premiership manager of the month award for August and praise for a more fluid, front-foot style.
He isn’t remotely shocked by how quickly it has clicked.
"I'm not surprised it's come together so quickly - I get that from the outside it might look like that," McLeish said. "There's an internal belief about what we're doing and the work we can do on the pitch. It could have been even better and we were close to it being even better."
The numbers back him up, but the scars from Ibrox are still fresh. St Mirren have already been there this season and were taken apart in the Premier Sports Cup, dismantled by five Rangers goals.
That afternoon felt like a line in the sand for Derek McInnes’ side. James Penrice, on his Rangers debut, scored one and made another, immediately staking a claim on the left. Since then, he has kept his place, as have central defenders Olwethu Makhanya and Emmanuel Fernandez. The latter can look jittery at times, but the continuity across the back line has given Rangers a platform to climb.
Motherwell barely laid a glove on them at Ibrox on Saturday. Rangers controlled the game, created enough chances to win it comfortably, and still left the door slightly ajar by failing to add to their lead. That came on the back of victories over Aberdeen and Falkirk, a run that has steadied nerves and nudged confidence upwards.
McInnes can feel the mood shifting, but he knows the job is nowhere near done.
"I don't think that ever lifts until you've got a trophy in your hand," he said of the pressure. "But I do think there's been a good feel about the place. What we have had in recent weeks is just small steps, encouragement, confidence levels."
The timing of Lawrence Shankland’s injury is brutal. Just as the striker rediscovered his scoring touch, he has been sidelined, leaving Kevin Kelsy to shoulder responsibility without the luxury of a gentle introduction. Rangers will need their new forward to adapt quickly.
This fixture has become tight again. Rangers edged both league meetings against St Mirren last season by a single goal, but before that the Buddies went four unbeaten in the head-to-head. They will travel with that knowledge – and with the memory of that heavy cup defeat ringing in their ears.
St Mirren’s task is complicated by the absence of Paul Nsio, ineligible against his parent club. His aggression and bite in midfield were badly missed in that cup loss, when Rangers dominated the centre of the pitch. Without him, McLeish must find another way to disrupt the rhythm that has begun to return to Ibrox.
Celtic chase perfection as St Johnstone eye another scalp
Across the city, Celtic carry a perfect domestic record into their trip to McDiarmid Park. They have had to absorb their own early-season turbulence – a painful Champions League qualifying exit in Austria and a late flurry of transfer business – but in the league they have simply kept winning.
The latest victory came in Paisley, where St Mirren pushed them hard. McLeish’s side impressed between both boxes, keeping Celtic honest, but lacked the decisive touch in front of goal. Celtic did not purr, yet still found a way back after falling behind.
Yang Hyun-jun drove that comeback. The winger was the standout performer, all energy and incision, and he finished it off with the decisive goal. Now he is gone, at least for the short term, called away by South Korea for the Asian Games. His departure forces Martin O’Neill into a reshuffle he would rather have avoided.
The temptation will be to move pieces around the board, but O’Neill has a dilemma at centre-forward. Camilo Duran has been electric through the middle, with three goals and two assists in his last three games. Shifting him wide again would blunt Celtic in the area where he has been most devastating.
If O’Neill does push Duran out to the flank, on-loan Chelsea striker Shim Mheuka is the obvious candidate to step in and lead the line. He is still waiting for his first start, having only been used off the bench so far, but he is one of the few of Celtic’s late-window arrivals to have had any minutes at all. Oliver Sorensen is the other. From the rest, Sebastian Tounekti looks the safest, most straightforward replacement for Yang on the wing.
There is more good news. Kasper Hogh and Kieran Tierney are back in contention after brief injury lay-offs, adding depth at centre-forward and left-back just as the schedule begins to tighten.
Celtic will not be handed anything in Perth. St Johnstone are chasing a third straight league win at McDiarmid Park and have embraced a possession-based, phase-by-phase approach that O’Neill openly admires.
"They want to play football as well and they're committed," he said. "There's a vitality about them which is very encouraging. Not dissimilar in many aspects to what Craig McLeish is doing at St Mirren."
Josh Fowler has thrived in that environment. Three of his four goals this season have come on home turf, while local boy Taylor Steven has caught the eye with his delivery from the right, particularly in the win over Hibs. At the back, Cheick Diabate and Zach Mitchell offer an old-school edge – dominant in the air, uncompromising in the challenge – even if St Johnstone are still hunting their first league clean sheet.
Head coach Simo Valakari knows what they are up against.
"We need to do our football things so well, then at the same time, we need to earn our luck, because against Celtic, if you want to beat them, you need to be a little bit lucky in some moments," the Finn said.
He is not wrong. Celtic’s last visit to Perth underlined that. You don’t have to dig deep into the archives to find an upset: St Johnstone’s home win over the champions in April 2025 was one of the few bright spots in a grim season that ended in relegation. They are back now, bolder and braver on the ball, and ready to test themselves again.
O’Neill returns to McDiarmid Park as a manager for the first time in 25 years, with his team unbeaten and his squad swelling with new faces. McInnes goes into another Ibrox night knowing every win pushes the club closer to the silverware that would finally ease the strain.
Two midweek games. One looming derby. By Sunday evening, we’ll know which of Glasgow’s giants has used this stage to sharpen the edge – and which one has left the door open.
