Dundee derby, Chermiti & Rohl in spotlight

Saturday ended with a dramatic twist in the Scottish Premiership, so what will Sunday offer?

Just hours after Celtic's 3-1 win over Motherwell ground down Heart of Midlothian's advantage at the summit to just two points, Derek McInnes' leaders fell to a shock loss in Kilmarnock.

Now, Rangers go to St Mirren to keep themselves in the title mix, while the managerless hosts will have their own designs on a result.

That's also before you get to the matter of a Tayside derby.

Let's take a look at the final two top-flight fixtures of the weekend...

It is indicative of the different expectations on opposite sides of Tannadice Street that there is more pressure on Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin than his Dundee counterpart as the city derby closes the weekend fixtures - despite his side being above Sunday's hosts in the Premiership table.

A narrow win over St Mirren in their last league game had kept alive United's outside hopes of a top-six finish.

But, given in-form Falkirk's 10-point lead with four games remaining before the Premiership splits into two for the final five fixtures, it appears like a forlorn task.

With United subsequently losing their Scottish Cup quarter-final to the very same Falkirk, it leaves Goodwin's side with little to play for the rest of this season other than finishing the best of the top six.

City rivals Dundee have emerged as their biggest challengers and Stephen Pressley's improving Dark Blues can overtake the visitors should they win the latest edition of the city derby.

It was not long ago that Dundee appeared destined for a battle with Kilmarnock and Livingston to avoid relegation, but they are now seven points clear of the Ayrshire side in the play-off spot and just two behind United.

Pressley's side have won just two of their latest eight outings, but both of those have come in their latest three and they head into the derby unbeaten in four.

United showed battling qualities before just falling short as they came from two goals down and threaten to take their tie in Falkirk to extra time.

However, they have won just once in five outings - and once in five on the road, losing the latest two.

It is the nature of derbies that form, even home advantage, can often go out the window and the away side of have won the latest three in Dundee.

Indeed, after their 1-0 win in January, Sunday's hosts could enjoy back-to-back top-flight victories over United for first time since 2004.

United won 2-0 on their last visit to Dens Park in August, but that came during a difficult start to Pressley's tenure and only leaders Hearts have won there in six games since Christmas.

In these usually tight affairs, much could depend on set-pieces. Half of United's Premiership goals this season have come from non-penalty set plays – the highest ratio of any side - while Dundee have only conceded 19.6% of their league goals from them, the least in the division.

Youssef Chermiti had started to earn himself a reputation as a big-game goalscorer.

After a dismal start to his career at Ibrox after his big-money summer transfer from Everton, the latest eight of the 21-year-old's nine goals this season had all come against title rivals Hearts and Celtic.

That included a hat-trick against the long-time league leaders and a double in this month's 2-2 league derby draw.

However, like the rest of his team-mates, the Portuguese striker rarely looked like scoring despite Rangers dominating for most of the game in their Scottish Cup quarter-final against the same opponents on Sunday.

With fellow summer striker arrival Bojan Miovski seemingly not fancied by new manager Danny Rohl, the burden of goalscoring has fallen squarely on Chermiti's young shoulders along with the baggage from such a big transfer fee.

He has scored five of Rangers' latest seven league goals, albeit his five goals in his last three league games are more than he scored in his first 18 previous appearances, so Rohl will be hoping for a return to that form.

Many eyes will be on both benches at SMiSA Stadium on Sunday - but for differing reasons.

St Mirren face their first game under caretaker coaches Craig McLeish and Jamie Langfield after Stephen Robinson's switch to Premiership rivals Aberdeen.

The 35-year-old McLeish, who flirted around the lower leagues as a midfielder with Clyde, Queen's Park and East Kilbride, among others, was only last summer promoted to be lead coach of their under-19s set-up.

Given their lack of preparation time, he will no doubt lean heavily on goalkeeping coach Langfield considering the 46-year-old's experiences playing for Dundee, Aberdeen and their current club.

In the opposing dugout, Rohl faces the task of picking his side up from a double disappointment against big city rivals Celtic.

The German earned early praise for bringing Rangers back into title contention after taking over from the sacked Russell Martin in October.

However, a disappointing draw away to bottom side Livingston was followed by their failure to finish off Celtic after taking a dominant 2-0 lead at Ibrox before a second successive 2-2 draw.

As if that was not bad enough, they failed to capitalise on an even more one-sided contest last Sunday as they lost to their city rivals after a penalty shoot-out when their Scottish Cup quarter-final finished goalless.

Indeed, in what was to be Robinson's last match in charge, St Mirren edged out second-tier visitors Partick Thistle 2-1 to set up a semi against Rangers' victors.

To keep Rangers on the coattails of Hearts and Celtic in the title race, Rohl must guide his side to a first win in Paisley in four visits, the Ibrox side having drawn 1-1 there under Martin in August.

Rangers ended a four-game run without a win over St Mirren with a 2-1 win at home in December.

That was the two games into a 12-game league run without defeat, but it is four draws in their latest five that have put Rohl's side on the back foot and they cannot afford another slip-up, especially against managerless hosts.