Old Firm Rivalry Heats Up Ahead of Premier Sports Cup Derby
The Old Firm rarely need much help to dominate the Scottish Premiership narrative, but Wednesday night feels like the table being set for something bigger.
With Rangers hosting St Mirren at Ibrox and Celtic heading to McDiarmid Park to face St Johnstone, both Glasgow clubs know a fourth straight league win would send them into Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup quarter-final derby with the standings looking reassuringly familiar.
Right now, though, it is not quite business as usual.
Rangers building momentum – and meeting an early surprise
Rangers trail St Mirren only on goal difference, a quirk that underlines just how sharp the Paisley side have been out of the blocks.
Craig McLeish has turned heads with a more fluid, front-foot style and already has the Premiership manager of the month award for August to show for it. He insists this is no overnight miracle.
"I'm not surprised it's come together so quickly – I get that from the outside it might look like that," he 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."
That belief has been tested at Ibrox already. St Mirren were taken apart there in the Premier Sports Cup, a bruising reminder of the gap that still exists when Rangers click. James Penrice lit up his debut that day, scoring one of five and laying on another, and the left-back has not looked back since.
Penrice, along with central defenders Olwethu Makhanya and Emmanuel Fernandez, has started every game since. Fernandez has the odd shaky moment, but a largely settled back line has given Derek McInnes the base he badly needed after a stuttering start that included dropped league points and a swift European exit.
The recent league run tells its own story. Aberdeen beaten. Falkirk seen off. Motherwell restricted to scraps at Ibrox on Saturday as Rangers passed up several chances to pad the scoreline. The performances are not flawless, but the pattern is clear.
McInnes feels the mood shifting.
"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."
One problem he cannot smooth over with mood music is the loss of Lawrence Shankland. Just as the striker had rediscovered his range, injury has removed Rangers’ most natural finisher from the equation. That accelerates the demands on Kevin Kelsy, who may have to adapt on the fly rather than ease into his new environment.
Rangers edged the last two league meetings with St Mirren by a single goal. Before that, the Buddies went four unbeaten in this fixture. They know how to frustrate at Ibrox, but they also know what a heavy defeat there feels like this season.
St Mirren’s bite will be dulled by the absence of Paul Nsio, ineligible against his parent club. That matters. Rangers dominated the midfield in last month’s cup tie, and without Nsio’s aggression and legs, McLeish must find another way to disrupt the home side’s rhythm.
Celtic winning, but still searching for their stride
Across the city, Celtic arrive in Perth with a perfect domestic record but without the swagger that often accompanies it.
They are still processing the shock of their Champions League qualifying exit in Austria, still bedding in a raft of late-window signings, yet still winning. That combination is dangerous for the rest of the league: a team collecting points while nowhere near its ceiling.
The champions had to grind at the weekend in Paisley. St Mirren impressed between the boxes, neat and composed, but lacked a ruthless edge. Celtic eventually forced the issue, got out with the win, and banked another lesson in resilience.
Yang Hyun-jun drove that victory, his energy and decisive finish standing out. Now he is gone to the Asian Games with South Korea, and his absence forces Martin O’Neill into another reshuffle just as he seemed to have found a balance.
The obvious move is to redeploy Camilo Duran wide. The form book argues against it. Three goals and two assists in three games as a central striker have transformed Duran into a focal point Celtic will be reluctant to disturb. If O’Neill keeps him through the middle, on-loan Chelsea forward Shim Mheuka comes into sharp focus as a candidate for a first start.
Of the six players who arrived in the frantic final 48 hours of the window, only Mheuka and Oliver Sorensen have seen any action, both from the bench. Sebastian Tounekti looks the safest call to step in for Yang, offering natural width without tearing up the structure.
Kasper Hogh and Kieran Tierney are back in contention after brief injury lay-offs, adding depth at centre-forward and left-back. Celtic’s options are thickening, even if their fluency has not fully returned.
They will need both depth and discipline in Perth. St Johnstone are chasing a third straight league win at McDiarmid Park and will not park the bus. They want the ball. They want to play through the thirds. They want to test Celtic on their own terms.
"They want to play football as well and they're committed," O’Neill said of Saints. "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 loves this ground – three of his four goals have come in Perth – while local boy Taylor Steven has been whipping in dangerous crosses from the right, most recently in the win over Hibs. At the back, Cheick Diabate and Zach Mitchell offer an uncompromising, old-school partnership. They attack everything in the air, throw themselves into blocks, and yet Saints are still waiting for their first league clean sheet.
Head coach Simo Valakari knows what that means against Celtic.
"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 has history on his side, if not much of it. Celtic’s last visit to Perth brought a shock home win in April 2025, one of the few bright sparks in a season that ended in relegation for St Johnstone. O’Neill has not walked out at McDiarmid Park as a manager for 25 years. He returns to find a club that has stumbled, fallen, and is now trying to rise again.
By late Wednesday, the league table could have that familiar Old Firm silhouette, Rangers and Celtic stacked at the top, derby countdown in full swing. Or the early-season upstarts from Paisley and Perth could refuse to step aside.
If the warm-up looks like this, what on earth will Sunday bring?
