By all accounts, the task of catching Rangers at the top of the Scottish Championship table is the kind of formidable reeling in job not attempted since Captain Ahab went careering after Moby Dick.

With ten wins out of ten, 30 points on the board and an eight point advantage over nearest rivals, Hibernian, the Ibrox side seem to be having a whale of a time on the domestic front.

For St Mirren, meanwhile, Rangers look a bit like a little royal blue dot on the horizon. After a stuttering start to the season, Ian Murray’s men languish 20 points behind the league leaders but tomorrow’s encounter between the two sides in Paisley is an opportunity for the hosts to strike a blow, not just for themselves but for the rest of teams wheezing and spluttering in Rangers’s wake.

“I think a win for us would lift the whole league,” said Murray, whose slowly improving side are unbeaten in their last four league and cup matches. “It would show the teams that are chasing Rangers that you can go and compete. Falkirk, Queens, Hibs and Livingston have done well against Rangers but haven’t beaten them or got any points from them so it’s a chance for us, after two wins in a row. People are expecting Rangers to win, they are almost champions elect so we need to try and beat them. We firmly believe that we can. It would be good for the whole division, whoever beats them. For Scottish football in general I think everybody will be willing us to win, no question.”

Despite initially struggling to find their feet in the second-tier, St Mirren still managed to give Rangers a good run for their money during the corresponding fixture at Ibrox back in August. The hosts did eventually win 3-1 but Steven Thompson’s missed penalty for the visitors, with the game poised at 2-1 provoked much reflective sighing of what might have been in the St Mirren camp.

“You never know what would have happened and from 2-2 we might have sneaked it,” added Murray. “The way we got ourselves back in the game from 2-0 showed great character and we’ll need that again at the weekend. Rangers will come here but they will know that they have been in a game.”

While Rangers have doled out some fairly hefty thumpings this season, the last few weeks have been characterised more by grinding wins than rampaging routs.

They required two late goals to stave off Falkirk’s spirited resistance before nicking a 90th minute winner against Queen of the South last weekend. The narrow mid-week victory over Livingston in the Petrofac Training Cup was also chiselled out. It’s a quality that Murray would clearly like his side to develop.

“It shows how good they are,” he conceded. “They keep going right to the end, they keep battling away and they’ll mix their game up eventually if they need to. They have won some big games. They blew Morton away, they blew Hibs away but they’ve also had to dig out wins. It must be great for the management and the fans as well to see a team winning by playing flamboyant football but also managing to do something to get over the line when things get tough.”

Murray will be looking for his men to make things tough on Sunday. “It’s up to us as the home team to get the tempo in the game,” he said. “But that is a no-brainer because it’s Rangers and they will bring the intensity with them. We have to match that.”

With Rangers travelling to Edinburgh next weekend to face Hibernian at Easter Road, these next couple of game will have a considerable bearing on things at the top. “If Rangers beat us and Hibs then it will be very hard for anybody to catch them,” said Murray. “But it's amazing what one result can do. If Hibs beat them at Easter Road, suddenly you might have a title race on your hands. For us to catch them both will be difficult but the play-offs are a realistic target. We are only eight points behind Falkirk and we’ve not started to motor yet.”