McLeish faces Old Firm pressure cooker

Rangers manager Alex McLeish faces up to his toughest Old Firm match knowing anything less than victory could end his four-year reign at Ibrox.

A run of just two wins from 11 matches has left the Glasgow giants 12 points behind arch-rivals Celtic in their Scottish Premier League title defence going into the game at Parkhead today.

Rangers also relinquished their grip on the League Cup when they lost 2-0 to Celtic last week, prompting chairman David Murray to publicly back his manager amid speculation the club were to appoint the 12th manager in their 132-year history.

Murray also revealed on the club's website, however, that McLeish had until early December to turn things round and his next task is to outfox his former Aberdeen and Scotland team-mate Gordon Strachan, the Celtic manager.

Rangers face a Champions League group game at Porto before a league trip to third-placed Hibernian next week but Murray and the Rangers fans would swap two victories for one over Celtic.

"I'm grateful for the chance to try to turn things around," McLeish told the club's website.

"It's a big challenge, but I don't fear it."