Oh, man! From a Bairn to a Saint, Alston has grown up against Gers
Blair Alston remembers when facing Rangers felt like men against Bairns.
But the St Johnstone star insists today’s clash with the Gers will be a battle between equals.
Alston faced Rangers on a regular basis in cup and Championship clashes whilst coming through the ranks at Falkirk.
In the early days, heavy defeats weren’t uncommon.
But after helping both Falkirk and St Johnstone to notable victories over the Ibrox men in more recent times – and grabbing a few stunning goals along the way – Alston has no fears over taking them on.
“Against Rangers I’ve probably been lucky,” he said. “Especially in my time at Falkirk, you’re probably lucky to even play Rangers, but I think I played them eight or nine times.
“We seemed to draw them in every cup, then they ended up in the Championship, and they didn’t go up straight away.
“We seemed to be playing them all the time.
“Some people don’t get a chance to play against them, never get a chance to play at Ibrox.
“It sounds silly but the first time I played there, they were head and shoulders above us at Falkirk.
“It was men against boys. “You’re turning up and thinking: ‘What’s going on here?’
“But through doing that, it got me a little bit more comfortable.
“Now, having played a lot of games and been fortunate to play at many big
stadiums, it just feels like any other game.
“St Johnstone don’t go into these games thinking we’re going to take a hiding.
“We go in thinking: ‘We can do something.’
“All the pressure is on Rangers. “We’ve done well against them, especially at Ibrox, when nobody has given us a chance, so there’s definitely no fear.
“We go in thinking we’ve got a good chance.”
Saints have gone into every game of late feeling confident.
Racking up eight games without defeat will do that to a team.
Their impressive run came to an end in dreadful weather conditions against Motherwell last weekend.
But the Perth men still believe in themselves – and the spark was a September losing streak bookended by their heaviest defeat of the season.
“When we went on that bad run of losing four in a row, maybe people weren’t exactly writing us off, but they were saying we’d be bottom six,” he said.
“In the 6-0 game against Celtic, we were probably the first team they played when they just clicked.
“It could have been 26-0. They took us apart.
“But in a way, losing to Celtic was the best thing that could have happened to us.
“From then on we got back to what we are good at.
“We were a lot more solid and won five in a row – without conceding a goal.
“OK, the result was embarrassing at the time and we all came off saying: ‘Crikey, what’s just happened?’
“But the run that followed was better than sneaking a draw against them and following it up with a few more.
“So it probably is the best thing that’s happened to us this season.”
Alston’s return to fitness is another good thing for Saints.
His performances are attracting interest from clubs down south, including Rotherham United.
Today, the midfielder hopes to add to the stunning goal he bagged a fortnight ago against Aberdeen.
“The Aberdeen game was was set up perfectly for me,” he said.
“The boys worked hard to keep it at 0-0 and sometimes you come on and get the glory.
“I missed a large part of the good run we were on with injuries.
“So I didn’t want to let anyone down when I came back in. And it was always going to be tough getting back up to speed.
“Hopefully I have done enough in the last couple of weeks to get a start against Rangers.”