Aberdeen players have made it clear what they think of the St Johnstone style of football but Blair Alston believes that Saints have shown on plenty of occasions that there is a lot more to their game than a lazy stereotype.
“There has been a bit of needle between the two teams,” he said. “They can say what they want but it is up to them to break us down. We aren’t going to change the way we play to suit them.
“Teams can say whatever they want about us. We don’t mind being a team that sets out to stop the opposition playing. We have gone to Ibrox, Tynecastle and Pittodrie and got good points against teams that are supposed to be wiping the floor with us given the way people portray these clubs.
Alston scored in a 1-1 draw with Rangers back in October and there is belief in the Perth camp that they can repeat the result at McDiarmid Park tonight or even go one better.
“We feel we can more than hold our own against them,” he said of Rangers and the other teams above them in the league.
“We are certainly at a stage now where we are looking at the teams above us, trying to put pressure on Hearts with a win.”
“At Ibrox we played really well and passed the ball around.
“Our greatest strength is that we aren’t one dimensional. Yes we can be physical and mix it up. But we can pass the ball, get it down and play. But given the conditions at Kilmarnock the other night it wasn’t conditions for passing, it was more about getting up the pitch and winning second balls.
“We are in a good position and feel we should be in an even better position because of some of the points we have missed out on. But it’s certainly not been smash and grab this season. We fully deserve to be where we are.”
Alston added: “When smaller teams go to the likes of Barcelona and Man City in the Champions League, make themselves hard to beat and they get a good point everyone says it is masterful. When we do something similar here we don’t see it as anti-football.
“The best way to win points is to keep a clean sheet. We try to be hard to break down and concede as few goals as possible because with the players we have here we are going to create chances to win games. That’s the way is has been so far this season and we will set-up the same way for Rangers.”