The league table in Premiership tells a story about these teams so far, with Rangers leading Hamilton Academical by 43 points. Match preview to follow:
The hosts Rangers saw competitive action as recent as four days ago, playing in the Scottish Cup. That game was an away game at Hearts, so at least Rangers are thankful to return home in this one. Game on!
Rangers's stadium, Ibrox Stadium, has a grass surface. Hamilton Academical have artifical turf on their own stadium. This might or might not make a difference, and to help evaluate that we give you the recent performance numbers for Hamilton Academical when playing on grass; 5 wins, 5 draws and 26 losses from 36 matches. They have scored 25 goals in these games and conceded 74.
Rangers form and stats
Rangers have been very solid at home in the Premiership so far, with 34 points collected from 13 matches (11-1-1). This has contributed greatly to their 2nd position in the table. The Rangers fans aren't used to losing league-games here at Ibrox Stadium and will expect new points from this game. Rangers has played eleven games in a row here without a defeat.
In their previous game, the manager S. Gerrard led his Rangers to a defeat in the Scottish Cup match away at Hearts. The manager is hoping to put things right immediately here at Ibrox Stadium. Before that match, a Europa League win away at Sporting Braga.
Rangers are huge favourites in this match and it would be a big surprise if they fail to leave Ibrox Stadium with a victory. The home side has been in this situation before, with huge expectations of a win. 13 earlier games are comparable to this one, and Rangers has won eleven times, drawn one and lost one. Sports bettors who like handicap betting will like to know that Rangers has won by at least two goals ten times when in this position.
There's a new game coming up fairly quickly for Rangers as they are travelling to their away game against Ross County in the Premiership. That match is four days after this one.
Rangers are an "over 2,5 goals" team alone here at Ibrox Stadium in their league games, having scored an impressive 33 goals in 13 matches. Rangers have showed great defending skills in these home games, allowing the opposition to score only 6 goals.
Hamilton Academical form and stats
The hunting on away grounds haven’t been very fruitful for Hamilton Academical so far with only 9 points returning home. The records show 1-6-6 (win-draw-lose). Two points from the last two away games for Hamilton Academical, which the math geniuses among you will translate to two draws.
There were no winners in Hamilton Academical's previous match, a Premiership home game that ended 0-0 vs Motherwell (placed 3rd). Ahead of that match was the away draw versus Hearts that ended 2-2.
Nobody expects Hamilton Academical to collect anything from a game like this. The team has been David versus Goliath six times before, with the overall statistics of won one, draw zero and lost five. When defeated, three matches have been lost by two or more goals.
A quick return to home after this game, as Hamilton Academical are hosting Kilmarnock in the Premiership only three days away.
Hamilton Academical are scoring more than one goal per away game on average, having accumulated 13 away goals from 13 games (in the league). As for defending, Hamilton Academical rarely keep clean sheets as they have conceded 24 goals from these away matches.
Head 2 Head
These teams' last encounter with each other was the Hamilton Academical - Rangers 1-3 earlier this season. H2H stats regardless of arena (last ten matches): Rangers nine wins, zero draws and Hamilton Academical one victory. As for goals, eight matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), two games had two or less.Top Goalscorers
  J. Defoe 13 goals | A. Morelos Aviléz 12 goals | R. Kent 6 goals |
Rangers missing players
Hamilton Academical missing players
| Rangers | Hamilton Academical | ||||||
| Total | Home | vs | Statistics | Stat | vs | Away | Total |
| 27 | 13 | 3 | Played | P | 3 | 13 | 28 |
| 20 | 11 | 3 | Won | W | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 4 | 1 | 0 | Drew | D | 0 | 6 | 9 |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | Lost | L | 2 | 6 | 15 |
| 63 | 33 | 8 | Scored | S | 3 | 13 | 28 |
| 18 | 6 | 0 | Conceded | C | 4 | 24 | 50 |
| 96% | 92% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 85% | 89% |
| 81% | 69% | 67% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 67% | 77% | 71% |
| 63% | 54% | 33% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 67% | 69% | 61% |
| 37% | 38% | 33% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 0% | 38% | 39% |
| 15% | 31% | 33% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 15% | 14% |
| 44% | 31% | 0% | BTTS | BTTS | 67% | 62% | 61% |
| 52% | 62% | 100% | Clean Sheets | C S | 0% | 15% | 14% |
| 7% | 15% | 0% | Failed to Score | F T | 33% | 38% | 36% |
| 7.4 | 9.7 | 8.3 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 3.3 | 3.6 | 3.7 |
| 2.8 | 2.3 | 3.3 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 5.7 | 7.5 | 7.9 |
| 1.3 | 1 | 2 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.3 | 1.7 | 1.5 |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| 444 | 222 | 31 | Total Shots | T S | 30 | 94 | 193 |
| 178 | 89 | 14 | Shots on Target | S O | 8 | 35 | 65 |
| 35% | 37% | 57% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 38% | 37% | 43% |
- Hamilton Academical have conceded at least twice as many corners as they have won.
- Hamilton Academical have played more matches over 2,5 goals away than home.
- Rangers have created more than twice as many corners as Hamilton Academical.
- Rangers have scored at least twice as many goals as they have conceded.
- Rangers have scored more than double the goals of Hamilton Academical.
- Rangers have won at least twice as many corners as they have conceded.
- Rangers have won significantly more corners at home than away.
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Celtic | 28 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 82 | 17 | 14 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 45 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 37 | 10 | 65 | 76 |
| 2 | Rangers | 27 | 20 | 4 | 3 | 63 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 33 | 6 | 14 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 30 | 12 | 45 | 64 |
| 3 | Motherwell | 28 | 13 | 3 | 12 | 36 | 36 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 19 | 22 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 17 | 14 | 0 | 42 |
| 4 | Aberdeen | 28 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 35 | 33 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 15 | 15 | 2 | 41 |
| 5 | Livingston | 28 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 39 | 36 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 6 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 22 | 30 | 3 | 38 |
| 6 | Hibernian | 29 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 41 | 46 | 15 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 26 | 22 | 14 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 24 | -5 | 37 |
| 7 | Kilmarnock | 28 | 9 | 5 | 14 | 29 | 38 | 14 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 13 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 25 | -9 | 32 |
| 8 | St. Johnstone | 27 | 7 | 11 | 9 | 27 | 46 | 15 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 18 | 26 | 12 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 20 | -19 | 32 |
| 9 | Ross County | 28 | 7 | 8 | 13 | 28 | 55 | 13 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 17 | 22 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 33 | -27 | 29 |
| 10 | St. Mirren | 27 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 23 | 36 | 13 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 11 | 23 | -13 | 25 |
| 11 | Hearts | 28 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 30 | 50 | 14 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 18 | 22 | 14 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 28 | -20 | 22 |
| 12 | Hamilton Academical | 28 | 4 | 9 | 15 | 28 | 50 | 15 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 15 | 26 | 13 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 13 | 24 | -22 | 21 |
- Hamilton Academical FC
- The Scottish Sun - (local newspaper)
- Daily Record - (local newspaper)