As a member of that now rare breed - a Rangers supporter who is still passionate about the national team - this game marks the welcome return of club (and dare I say 'proper') football, after the inevitable anti-climax that was Scotland's world cup qualifying campaign.
I predicted a 2-0 win for us earlier in the thread. Having said that, I won't be too surprised if we concede. Our defence remains the weakest part of our squad. The game against Hamilton should remind the players however that going behind needn't cause us to panic or become disheartened. As with all our league matches, we need to take the game by the scruff of the neck and get stuck in. We are a bigger club with better players and more money. We need to stamp our authority on the game and be arrogant without being complacent. St Johnstone are a small-time club and we need to illustrate this with a professional performance and comfortable victory tomorrow.
It's obviously a must win game. Realistically, with Timmy playing at home, the best we can hope for from this weekend is to remain no more than 6 points off the pace. Sometimes when you feel you're on a hiding to nothing you lose motivation, but if anything this should give us extra motivation. If we can stay within 6 points of them when we play away matches, the onus is on them to keep on winning their away games. Eventually they'll fail to do so. The 6 point gap becomes 4, then it becomes 2. Then another Glasgow derby comes around and it's all to play for.
A lack of motivation however could see us being 10 points or more behind them before we travel to the Piggery, and this would clearly be unacceptable.
Perth is hardly the most glamorous or inspiring of places to go to on a dark autumn evening, but 3 points is 3 points. We have to win.