Danny Lennon believes the gap between the Old Firm and the rest of the clubs in the top flight is closer than ever. Lennon's St Mirren stunned Rangers in October when they secured a 1-1 draw away from home to put the brakes on a run of 14 consecutive league wins for Ally McCoist's side. They sides meet again today, this time in Paisley, and Lennon is hopeful of gathering more points for his side. While the resources gap remains, Lennon insists his players are more than capable of matching Rangers on the pitch. He said: "I believe the gap between the Old Firm and the rest of Scottish football is getting closer than it was in recent years. That's got to be a good thing for the overall quality and excitement of our national game. We still have a very tiny budget in comparison to Rangers and Celtic but football, for me, is all about who plays best on the day."
Rangers thought they had three points in the bag only for striker Steven Thompson to score an equaliser deep into injury time to hand St Mirren a share of the points in the last meeting between the sides. As far as Lennon is concerned, a point is the least his side deserved for an impressive performance and he says they should take confidence from the display ahead of today's game encounter. He went on: "We managed to match them at Ibrox in a very entertaining game. For me, we scored one of the best goals of the season, from our own box into their box in the closing seconds of the game. In that performance, we enjoyed the vast majority of the possession and that, together with that wonderful goal, gives us great encouragement going into the game on Saturday. It's going to be an interesting one. It's two good footballing sides and two quality coaching staff that are going to pit their wits against each other. Hopefully the quality football played will determine the winner. May the best team win on the day." Lennon may regard Rangers as a good footballing team but they have been forced to grind out results in recent game, when performances have not always been of the highest standard. The Buddies boss said: "I hear a lot of talk about Rangers not playing fantastically well but they are still getting results. That's a great quality to have. Rangers have managed to do it for a number of years and it's a terrific mentality to have." On Wednesday night, Rangers travel to take on Celtic at Parkhead in what will be one of their biggest games of the campaign. Asked if he expects today's visitors to have one eye on the Old Firm derby, Lennon said: "There has been a lot of talk about that but knowing Ally and his staff, they will be totally focused on looking after themselves. I'm only interested in St Mirren, not what the others are thinking."
Source: FOOTYMAD
