St Mirren and Ross County meet in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday afternoon with both clubs occupying a place in the top six of the table.
The home side find themselves in that position having played a game less, while County have benefitted from winning their opening two matches of the campaign.
Match preview
© Reuters
After only narrowly avoiding a relegation battle last season, St Mirren have upset the odds during the early weeks of this campaign with two wins from three games.
Their sole defeat came at the hands of Rangers at Ibrox, with 1-0 victories over Livingston and Hamilton Academical coming either side of their trip to Glasgow.
St Mirren are already a fifth of the way towards matching last season's points total, and Jim Goodwin will be eager to take advantage of playing a fixture of this importance while his side are in good form.
Scoring just twice suggests that their long-standing issues in front of goal are yet to be solved, but two clean sheets will fill Goodwin with confidence ahead of the visit of County.
Defender Richard Tait has been the star of the show thus far, contributing a goal and an assist while also playing his part at the back.
County will also be delighted with their start to the season, even if the gloss has been taken off with a home defeat to Dundee United last weekend.
The setback was all the more frustrating after they had initially led through Coll Donaldson's opener before eventually succumbing to Nicky Clark's 79th-minute winner.
Nevertheless, having only finished six points above the drop zone in 2019-20, Stuart Kettlewell will be focusing on the positives ahead of the visit to The Simple Digital Arena.
Having not scored more than seven in a season for County since 2017, Ross Stewart will want to build on already netting twice in four outings since the beginning of August.
St Mirren Scottish Premiership form: WLW
Ross County Scottish Premiership form: WWDL
Team News
© Reuters
Despite his arrival on a free transfer, former Notts County forward Kristian Dennis will only be named among the St Mirren replacements.
Barring any late fitness issues, Goodwin could name the same starting lineup from the last fixture.
Although they have made progress with their recoveries from long-term injuries, Kyle Magennis and Ryan Flynn remain out of contention.
Kettelwell is expected to make several changes to his Ross County XI, including handing a recall to Lee Erwin.
Carl Tremarco and Regan Charles-Cook will also hope to feature in the team after substitute appearances last weekend.
St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Alnwick; Fraser, Foley, Shaughnessy, Tait; MacPherson, Sheron, McGrath; McAllister; Morias, Obika
Ross County possible starting lineup:
Laidlaw; Randall, Donaldson, Iacovitti, Reid; Draper, Vigurs; Erwin, Paton, Stewart; Mckay
We say: St Mirren 1-1 Ross County
With neither team being prolific this season, do not expect the goals to flow on Saturday afternoon. A closely-fought contest is likely to be played out at The Simple Digital Arena, one which could lead to a low-scoring draw.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 2.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 2.5:data
Darren Plant
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a St Mirren win with a probability of 50.25%. A draw had a probability of 26.7% and a win for Ross County had a probability of 23.08%.
The most likely scoreline for a St Mirren win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.95%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.13%) and 2-1 (9.02%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.42%), while for a Ross County win it was 0-1 (8.55%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 12.4% likelihood.
