THE dress rehearsal ended in a share of the spoils at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday.
But there will be no place for sharing at Ibrox on Sunday when Rangers and St Johnstone meet for a second time in five days.
The pair go head-to-head in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup, and with the tie decided on the day, both teams will be certain to leave everything on the Govan turf.
Saints raised their game against Steven Gerrard’s side during the week and were ultimately rewarded with the point they deserved.
Liam Craig stroked home a 95th minute penalty to cancel out a Scott Wright strike earlier in the second period and the veteran midfielder’s attention has now turned to the weekend.
“I don’t think Wednesday’s result will do much to Rangers,” he explained. “They showed how strong their squad is with the changes they made.
“You look over when they’re making subs and it’s Aribo coming on. Morelos and Kent are still in the stand. I said in the build-up to Wednesday that it would be two totally different games. I stand by that.
“It’s never easy going to Ibrox. They have only lost one game domestically. Sunday is a totally different game, different venue and I’d imagine changes in both teams.
“What Rangers have shown this season is a consistency, confidence and belief to do well week in, week out.
“When they haven’t been at their best they still find ways to get wins and points. We did well on Wednesday but we know we’ll need to be even better at the weekend to get through to the semi-final."
Saints’ point midweek could prove precious as they continue their quest to close in on Livingston in fifth place, with European football still a major possibility.
Craig was instrumental in the middle for the Callum Davidson’s team, and he hopes a point against the champions can breed confidence moving forward.
He continued: “From the split we have wanted to finish fifth. We still have an opportunity to do that so the point was huge. It was never going to be a case of us being happy with just getting top six.
“We want to finish as strong as we can and make this a really memorable season. We’re on course to do that. There is still a long way to go. We still need to go to Easter Road, Celtic Park and play Livingston.
“But we showed on Wednesday and over the course of the season that we’re good enough to compete. We definitely deserved the point.”
Craig reiterated just how important it will be for Saints to take their chances when they come at Ibrox on Sunday, with Rangers conceding just three goals at home in the Premiership this campaign.
He added: “We started the game really well and created a few decent chances which we should’ve done better with.
“You don’t get many opportunities against Rangers. When you do, you need to take them. But fair play to the boys because we dug in and showed great character after going a goal down.
“It was important that we played with a good shape and didn’t go chasing the game. We played with discipline. As long as there was only a goal in it, you can get opportunities.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here