Rangers travel to the SMISA Stadium tonight knowing a victory over St Mirren would move them to within a point of Premiership leaders Celtic.
Derek McInnes' side hold two games in hand on their city rivals after defeating Aberdeen in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final last weekend, setting up a final against Hearts at Hampden next month.
Attention now returns to league business, with Rangers aiming to bounce back from consecutive 2-2 draws away to Dundee and Hearts either side of a 4-0 home win over St Johnstone.
Pressure on both sides
McInnes knows his team cannot afford to drop more points against a St Mirren side looking to build momentum. Craig McLeish's team have won just two of their last 10 Premiership matches and sit eighth after 12 games, five points above 11th-placed Kilmarnock.
The Buddies have already faced Rangers twice this season, losing 1-0 in the league at Ibrox and 5-1 at the same venue in the Premier Sports Cup.
McLeish wants positive result
St Mirren manager Craig McLeish said his side do not want to be the "hard luck story" against the Old Firm. "We don't want that," he said. "We want to be able to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the league and come out with positive results and against Rangers and Celtic, we have not managed to do that."
He added: "A couple of the games have got away from us and that's what you're trying to fight against and make sure that the games do go right to the end and you're always in with a chance. That's the bit now for us as a group and confidence within the group, to go and get a positive result against one of them – that's probably the next step for us."
Team news dilemmas
McInnes surprised many by leaving captain Dan Neil on the bench for the cup semi-final, deploying James Penrice in midfield and handing Tuur Rommens a start at left-back. Rangers won through Ryan Naderi's late goal, with Neil and Penrice involved in the build-up.
The manager now faces a selection choice for tonight's match, including whether to keep Rommens in the side and whether Djeidi Gassama, also left out at Hampden, returns after a positive impact from the bench.
