This Saturday fourth-placed Greenock Morton come to Ibrox. The following Saturday Rangers are whisked off to Falkirk, before Championship title rivals Hibernian travel to Govan on the 28th.
In short, 16 days which, in all likelihood, will determine the destiny of the title.
Those three sides are, in exact reverse order at the time of writing, the fourth, third and second-placed clubs in the Scottish Championship, and are the biggest obstacles to Rangers outright winning the league.
Mark Warburton’s men have a three-point gap – a sign of the mild loss of form suffered over October and November where instead of a win at Easter Road granting Rangers an-11 point lead, defeat meant it was whittled down to zero before the postponed Dumbarton fixture gave the Ibrox men a little breathing room.
Hibernian themselves likewise have a tough 16 days, hosting Falkirk then Queen of the South before they hit the M8 to Ibrox, so it is no understatement that how the Championship’s top two do over their respective next three matches will almost certainly define who wins the league.
Many put great stock in the potential top of the table decider on the 28th, but Falkirk away is a dark horse for Rangers’ biggest test. Peter Houston’s men played some excellent football at Ibrox, and while Rangers ran out ultimately deserving winners, their only defeat at Falkirk Stadium this season in the league was to Hibs and Warburton will not be taking three points for granted.
Morton, in theory, should be a given three points as even during Rangers’ two-month ‘slump’ they were the one side the Light Blues still rolled over with ease – away from home at that.
But Hibs at home and Falkirk away will be the big two, the tough cookies.
A massive positive for Warbs is his team have just started to creak into gear again – while some of the football is still struggling a little to break down defences, that it is eight goals in two matches with none conceded gives Rangers a lot of confidence after the disappointing draw at Almondvale, or ‘Tony Macaroni Arena’, as it is called these days.
So they head into this colossal period in fairly decent nick, and it seems pretty clear that these 16 days will have a massive say on who will be crowned champions this season.