Rangers legend Derek Johnstone has insisted that the Gers cannot afford to drop points at St. Johnstone tonight as he called on his former club to steer clear of matters off the pitch.

The clash at McDiarmid Park has been spiced up, owing to a war of words between managers Pedro Caixinha and Tommy Wright.




Caixinha, who riled up St. Johnstone's players as he compared them to Scottish Championship outfit Greenock Morton, suggested that someone leaked the Rangers team news to the Saints last season, which led to Wright altering the training sessions for his side before the two teams met.

Wright was not impressed with the accusation as he said that he feels the Rangers boss is suffering from paranoia.
 


But Johnstone insisted that Rangers, who are already six points behind Celtic and Aberdeen, should solely concern on their match with St. Johnstone and nothing else as the Light Blues cannot afford to fall further behind in the title race.

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“Rangers can’t afford to fall further behind the teams that are ahead of them at the top of the table and that is their focus”, he wrote in his column in the Evening Times.

“Never mind what is happening off the park, it is about what happens on it this is the most important thing for Rangers.”

Johnstone further added: “What did or didn’t happen before the last game with St Johnstone is water under the bridge and something that he doesn’t need to worry about going into this fixture.

“He should move on and focus on finding a team that is capable of going out on that park and winning games regularly because that is the only way that Rangers are going to progress and the fans are going to be happy.

“I would imagine there would have been a lot of Rangers fans picking up their paper, reading that story about the team apparently being leaked and thinking ‘I don’t give a monkeys’.

“They will be more concerned about Rangers going to McDiarmid Park tonight and beating St Johnstone and closing the gap to Celtic and Aberdeen ahead of their games this weekend.”

Rangers and St. Johnstone are level on points in the league table, but the Gers occupy third spot due to having a better goal difference.