A peep of referee John Beaton's whistle and St Mirren get the game under way.

The Buddies in their traditional black and white stripes, Rangers in their light blue.

Here come the teams in the morning Paisley sunshine....not often you get to say that!

Recently appointed managers haven't fared too well in the Premiership.

Stephen Robinson finds his St Mirren side now in a fight to avoid relegation, his predecessor Jim Goodwin also missed out on the top six with Aberdeen, as did Shaun Maloney with Hibernian.

Meanwhile, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has relinquished the Premiership lead with Rangers after taking over from Steven Gerrard.

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson tells BBC Radio Scotland: "Charles Dunne had a little foot injury but is fit now and gives us that pace at the back. Alex Gogic gives us defensive stability in midfield.

"We’ve stuck with a front three with Connor Ronan in behind because I thought they were very good last week.

"Top six wasn’t to be, but now we have to finish the season as strongly as possible, finish seventh which would equal the best finish in 20-odd years.

"Anybody in the bottom six has to be looking over their shoulder a bit. We need some points, a win should probably see us safe, but we have to be looking up the way."

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst believes his side can bounce back from two defeats this week.

"We have to," he tells Sky Sports. "We have to get back to winning ways."

Of the five changes to his side, he adds: "We have to mix things a little bit up because we have a hectic schedule.

"I didn't put Jack and Bassey in the squad today so they are fresh for Thursday's second leg against Braga."

St Mirren: Lyness, Fraser, Shaughnessy, Dunne, Tait, Power, Gogic, Henderson, Ronan, Jones, Brophy.

Substitutes: Urminsky, Smyth, McCarthy, Erhahon, Gilmartin, Thomson, Gallagher, Greive, Main.

Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic, Lundstram, Ramsey, Aribo, Kent, Roofe, Sakala.

Substitutes: McLaughlin, King, Balogun, Sands, Davis, Kamara, Wright, Arfield, Amad.

Aaron Ramsey, the midfielder on loan to Rangers from Juventus, has scored in both of his first two Premiership starts.

So it was a bit of a mystery why Ramsey was left on the bench during the defeat by Braga.

Whatever the reason, the Wales international starts again today and is aiming to become the first player to score in each of his first three starts in the competition since Celtic striker Albian Ajeti in September 2020.

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History is certainly on Rangers' side as they head to Paisley, having won their latest four meetings against St Mirren.

But the Buddies did beat the Glasgow side in the game before that - a 3-2 win the League Cup delivering a blow to the side then under Steven Gerrard in December 2020.

However, that is the only time St Mirren have avoided defeat against today's visitors in 11 meetings since 2016.

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Sportsound's build-up to the action in Paisley is about to begin on BBC Radio Scotland.

Two former right-backs, Alan Hutton and David van Zanten, ex of Rangers and St Mirren respectively, join host Kenny Macintyre.

Tune in by clicking the wee link at the top of the page.

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St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson expected to have only 17 players available for the game, so it's no surprise he makes only two changes to his starting line-up despite last weekend's 4-2 defeat by Motherwell.

Charles Dunne replaces Conor McCarthy, who drops to the bench, at centre-half, while Alex Gogic returns to midfield.

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Giovanni van Bronckhorst stressed that the way big games have been coming thick and fast for his side meant he has had to ditch his preference to stick with a settled side.

He thus makes five changes from Thursday's Europa League defeat by Braga.

Aaron Ramsey surprisingly didn't even get off the bench in Portugal, but the Wales international starts in midfield along with Joe Aribo, while Kemar Roofe is up front and Filip Helander and Borna Barisic come into defence.

Leon Balogun, Glen Kamara and Scott Arfield drop to the bench, but there's no sign of Scotland midfielder Ryan Jack, who looked angry to be substituted against Braga, and in-form defender Calvin Bassey.

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Let's look at those team changes in more detail...

According to this morning's Sunday newspapers, Celtic and Rangers are set to collide in the first round of post-split Premiership fixtures on the weekend of 23 April - a week after they meet in the Scottish Cup semi-final.

Meanwhile, on-loan Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Connor Ronan believes he has made the impact with St Mirren that keeps alive his dream of making it in England's top flight at the age of 24.

You can read those and other stories from the Sunday newspapers in today's Scottish Gossip, clicking here.

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As said previously, it's not been a good week for either of these sides.

Rangers are looking to avoid a third straight defeat after last Sunday's home loss at home to Celtic that seriously hampers their chances of retaining the title before Thursday's 1-0 reverse away to Sporting Braga in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final.

St Mirren have already suffered three consecutive losses and head into today's game having won once in eight outings and now looking over their shoulder in the relegation zone after their top-six hopes were ended.

Let's get straight to the team news from The SMISA Stadium...

It's been a weekend of disappointment for both Rangers and St Mirren even before a ball is kicked in Paisley today.

Reigning champions Rangers find themselves nine points adrift of Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership after their city rivals' 7-0 thrashing of St Johnstone yesterday.

At the same time, St Mirren's outside hopes of a top-six finish were ended as Dundee United, Ross County and Motherwell did enough to secure the final three available places before the Scottish Premiership splits into two for the final five matches.

Stay with us to find out who recovers from those blows best as they meet at high noon.

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