Scottish Premier League: St Mirren v Rangers Odds and Betting Preview

PAISLEY, UK - Rangers will be hoping to give their fans an early Christmas present when they travel to Paisley to play St Mirren in the early Saturday kick-off by grabbing their fourth successive win in the Scottish Premier League.

Visitors Rangers are priced-up at 4/9 with bet365 and William Hill to take the three points, and even at short odds they will be included in plenty of festive accumulators, stretching across from Christmas Eve to encompass the Boxing Day action in England. A stale-mate would give Celtic the chance to make up ground on the league leaders at best odds of 7/2 with Victor Chandler, whilst a shock home win for St Mirren in front of their fans can be backed at a high of 15/2 with Betfred.

St Mirren are currently eighth in the Premier League with 22 points and have been unpopular in the pre-match betting, most likely due to the fact that captain Jim Goodwin is suspended for the next three matches. In the last four times that Rangers have played at St Mirren Park, Danny Lennon’s side have only managed one goal-less draw, losing the other three. Even more worrying is that The Buddies come into the televised game on the back of a four-match winless streak, although to be fair to them they have only had one home game in the previous month.

Rangers on the other hand have picked up a worrying habit of conceding goals in the first half of their matches, but Ally McCoist’s side have regained the winning thread just at the right time and they are still the favourites to win the SPL, albeit at 4/5 with bet365, with Celtic just behind at evens with Irish bookie Paddy Power. Sone Aluko is back in the side after returning from a ban, but will probably start on the bench, whereas Dorin Goian will probably go straight back into the starting XI. Croatian striker Nikica Jelavic is on 13 goals for the season, but William Hill are still 6/4 that Rangers sign Kris Boyd, who is now a free agent after his contract in Turkey was ripped up.

In the correct score betting, the preferred outcome by the bookies is a 1-0 away for Rangers, which is at 6/1 with Ladbrokes and totesport. 2-0 for Rangers is also at 6/1 with William Hill, but given that they have only kept one clean sheet in their previous five matches, scorelines such as 1-2 and 1-3 could be better punts at 7/1 and 12/1 respectively with bet365. A 1-1 draw would be a horror result for Rangers ahead of the Old Firm clash next Wednesday, but is a possibility at 8/1 with Coral. Finally St Mirren’s best chance of snatching a win is 1-0, which is at 18/1 with Stan James.

The favourite in the first goalscorer market is Jelavic, who is on offer at 7/2 with Ladbrokes and totesport to find the net first. Next is Kyle Lafferty at 9/2 with Ladbrokes, or at 4/1 with bet365 if you want to keep their ‘bore draw’ concession onside. John Fleck is an 11/1 chance with bet365, whilst the player for money has been Steven Thompson, who despite only having scored one goal this season, is into 12/1 with bet365. Young Nigel Hasselbaink is probably the sole St Mirren player of interest in the betting, and he is at 12/1 with Ladbrokes, who are surprisingly top-priced on every runner in the first goalscorer market.

Rangers to be leading at both half-time and full-time will be a popular wager at 6/5 with bet365, but St Mirren have been playing some good football recently. Draw/Rangers could be a better pick at 10/3 with Ladbrokes, whilst over 2.5 goals can be backed at 10/11 with William Hill.

If there is a red card in the match, Paddy Power will refund first goalscorer bets, correct score bets and scorecast singles.

The game kicks-off at 12.45pm GMT on Saturday 24 December and is live on Sky Sports 1.

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