Sunday sees the Scottish Premiership focus placed on Ibrox as Rangers play host to Kilmarnock.
Title Charge Continues
With both Celtic and Rangers winning 2-1 last Sunday, it is as you were in the race for this season’s Scottish Premiership title.
As You Were
The post-split phase of this Scottish Premiership season is underway and after Celtic and Rangers got the better of Dundee and St Mirren respectively, last Sunday’s action saw no change in the points gap between the top two.
Now just four league rounds remaining, and Rangers find themselves playing catchup to the tune of three points worse off. Not only are the Ibrox outfit doing their best to hang on to the Hoops’ coattails, but they do so with a less positive goal difference than the current league leaders.
A goal difference that they could only increase by one last weekend and after going ahead at St Mirren in the first half, Philippe Clement’s men were not able to hold on to their newfound lead for very long.
In fact, their advantage at the SMiSA Stadium lasted for all of five minutes and with the scores level at the interval, the visitors knew that their already delicate title hopes were now hanging by even more of a thread.
A thread that was repaired after the break and although there was plenty of toil before Cyril Dessers’ 74th minute goal, picking up another three Premiership points and building on their Scottish Cup win the week before is what mattered most.
One hurdle cleared in this title steeplechase and now another one in the shape of Kilmarnock. The Rugby Park outfit have caused Rangers a headache this season and on the first weekend of the they would manage to cause an upset win in Ayrshire.
While Kilmarnock’s campaign has been one of relative surprise and with a top-four finish all but guaranteed, Derek McInnes’ men can look forward to a return to European action before this summer comes to an end.
The name McInnes is well-known within Rangers circles and with Killie’s boss being a midfield mainstay at Ibrox in the 1990′s, there may be a smattering of recognition from the home support before the game gets underway.
As nice as that may be, it is McInnes’ job to stifle the team that will play hosts to him on Sunday and as last weekend showed, Rangers cannot afford to take any of these top six teams lightly. If they do, they will have their work cut out once again.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and after scoring the winner in last week’s trip to St Mirren, I am going to back Cyril Dessers to do the business once again. This time, I am backing him to score the opener and a home win at odds of 15/4.
In addition to this, I am going to opt for a correct score bet and with Rangers continuing their winning streak, their next three points will see them score three goals. However, victory will come at the cost of a goal for Kilmarnock and this outcome is priced at 10/1.
