St Mirren defender Marcus Fraser knows it's no secret that Rangers' form has plummeted in recent weeks - but nobody in the home dugout will be taking the Scottish Premiership clash against the title-chasers lightly when they meet at the SMISA Stadium on Sunday.
Before their victory over Heart of Midlothian in last week's Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park, the Light Blues had only managed to secure two wins in their last eight matches across all competitions.
Philippe Clement's team remains three points adrift of cinch Premiership leaders Celtic, with a cup final against their Glasgow rivals on May 25 to cap off the season. Meanwhile, St Mirren sits fifth, aiming to secure a European berth, but Fraser emphasises that any success against Rangers will require a determined effort - and he is expecting them to approach the game "all guns blazing".
“They are in a title race and obviously Celtic and Rangers, two good teams, are there for a reason," he said.
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"Their individual players, their squad is really good. It is over a long season so we are not naive to say they have had a few bad results.
“We need to be on our game to get a result and that’s where a big performance is needed for us, and I am sure if we all turn up in the right frame of mind we can get that.
“There has got to be (belief). The big factor for us is we are at home. We have a lot of fans behind us, which is big for us.
“Of course we know Rangers are a really good side. People are speaking about Rangers this and that, but they are still in the title race and they will come here guns blazing.
“So we have to match that. We want a positive result from the game because we know what is at stake for us. It’s a massive game for us and obviously for them as well.”
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While manager Stephen Robinson has challenged St Mirren to deliver a "marquee result" having watched Rangers win 21 of their last 22 league meetings with the Buddies.
"This season, we haven’t had what I’d call a marquee performance or result against either Rangers or Celtic," Robinson said.
"We have had a lot of points against the bottom-six sides, but we haven’t managed to take points off the top two and that has to be the goal.
"We are up against opposition that can change the game in a heartbeat and we’ll have to be right at the top of our game."
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