Now he has warned his Light Blue troops that they will have to perform at their best if they are to avoid suffering a similar fate to the Dons.

He said: "St Mirren will be tough, they have started the season in a good place and were unlucky to lose at Hibs I thought.

"Then they got a fantastic result against a good, strong team in Aberdeen so I think the warning signs are there for my players.

"It took a fluky Daniel Candeias left foot swinger to settle the game and they sat in there and made it very difficult. I thought they were very organised and they had a threat on the counter-attack.

"The couple of games I have watched and analysed this season then I predict they might do something similar. We are going to have to be at our best to win this game."

Gerrard made 10 changes to his team for last week's Betfred Cup win at East Fife and is likely to ring the changes again before facing Saints as he looks to keep his team fresh before Thursday's Europa League decider with Legia Warsaw.

Rangers only touched back down in Glasgow at 4am on Friday morning but the Light Blues boss is confident his side will be well enough prepared ahead of their trip down the M8 to Renfrewshire.

He said: "We have had a session on Friday and we have one on Saturday as well so it is two full sessions.

"We will still get the right amount of information to the players. They will still know the game plan nice and clear.

"It is not as if we are going to try something crazily different. So the players are all aware of what their roles and responsibilities are in the team.

"It is my job to make it as clear as possible how important these three points are. We have started the season really well in terms of the league and we want to build on that.

"We have got to go there and do everything we can, whoever is selected, to take maximum points."