The faint-hearted would be advised to find a darkened room tomorrow evening and only emerge when it is all over. The climax of the 2007-08 Clydesdale Bank Premier League title race should carry a government health warning.

The permutations are many, but Rangers know what they have to do - they must beat Aberdeen by as many goals as possible. They will also hope that Celtic struggle against Dundee United.

The sceptics would say it is mission impossible, but then they said that in 2003 and 2005, when the Ibrox side stole the title against all odds. On the latter occasion, Rangers' win over Hibernian, together with Celtic's late capitulation against a Scott McDonald-inspired Motherwell, gave Alex McLeish's side an improbable triumph. Five years ago, Rangers secured the league on a goal difference of one after a 6-1 thrashing of Dunfermline edged out Celtic, who beat Kilmarnock 4-0 at Rugby Park.

Artur Numan played in that dramatic day in 2003, when a Mikel Arteta penalty rubber stamped the title (Rangers would still have won it at 5-1 as they had scored more goals than Celtic). "We played at home against Dunfermline and we had the advantage of playing in front of our own crowd," recalled the former Netherlands internationalist, who was signed by Dick Advocaat in 1998 and played for Rangers for five seasons.

"They acted as the 12th man that day. We needed the three points but we also needed to score as many goals as possible. We knew Celtic were at Kilmarnock and that they would probably win the game by two or three. That meant we had to win by more."

The ebb and flow of these occasions are impossible to predict, as the Dutchman can testify. Five years ago, Rangers opened the scoring in the third minute through Michael Mols, before Jason Dair equalised for Dunfermline eight minutes later. Claudio Caniggia and Shota Arveladze then made it 3-1 before half time.

"Five years ago we scored early and the whole stadium exploded," he recalled. "We tried to get the second goal as quickly as possible, but then Dunfermline equalised and the whole place went flat.

We knew we had to keep going forward and creating chances."

Further strikes from Ronald de Boer and Steven Thompson, then Arteta's late penalty, capped a historic win. "Thankfully, we scored the goals in the second half but the nerves and the tension was unbelievable," said Numan. "In 2003, you only had to look at the faces in the stand to know what was happening. The players will hear what is happening in Dundee, but the important thing is that they concentrate on their own jobs."

Rangers will chase a similar glut of goals tomorrow night. Against St Mirren on Monday evening they fielded three strikers, Nacho Novo, Kris Boyd and Jean-Claude Darcheville, in their bid to eat into Celtic's superior goal difference.

They managed three without reply, including a double from Darcheville and one from Boyd, which meant that they now trail Celtic by four goals. If the Parkhead side beat Dundee United 1-0, then Rangers will have to score five.

On Monday night, Walter Smith's attacked constantly but were wasteful in front of goal, with Novo and Barry Ferguson both missing key chances in the second half.

They will have to be more clinical at Pittodrie, but can content themselves in the knowledge that they have won by a five-goal margin twice already this season - a 7-2 victory over Falkirk last August and a 6-0 thrashing of East Stirlingshire in the Scottish Cup.

"I think it would be a big shock if Rangers score five goals at Pittodrie," added Numan. "With the background between Aberdeen and Rangers, Pittodrie can be a very difficult place to go.

"If you look at their victories over the past few months, most of them have been by small margins. Rangers can still win it, but the problem now is that it is not in their own hands.

"It looks like mission impossible, but no-one expected it three years or five years ago and they managed it then. The most important thing for them is to be as professional as possible and make sure they get the job done."