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St Mirren logo
Scottish Premiership | Gameweek 18
Dec 19, 2020 at 3pm UK
St Mirren Park
St Johnstone logo

St Mirren
3 - 2
St Johnstone

Erhahon (38'), Erwin (82'), Obika (87')
Shaughnessy (21')
FT(HT: 1-2)
May (22' pen.), Tanser (44')
McCann (90+3'), McCart (90+5')
Kerr (45')

Preview: St Mirren vs. St Johnstone - prediction, team news, lineups

Sports Mole previews Saturday's Scottish Premiership clash between St Mirren and St Johnstone, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

St Mirren, fresh from dumping Rangers out of the Scottish League Cup in midweek, welcome St Johnstone to Paisley on Saturday afternoon for what should be an interesting Scottish Premiership clash.

St Johnstone were beaten at home by Livingston in the league last weekend, but enjoyed some League Cup glory of their own in midweek, beating Dunfermline Athletic on penalties to reach the semi-finals.


Match preview

St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin pictured on August 9, 2020© Reuters

Jim Goodwin has enjoyed a fine week as St Mirren manager. The Buddies hauled themselves off the bottom of the table with a gritty 1-0 win at Motherwell last weekend, before enjoying some real glory in the League Cup in midweek.

Goodwin's men welcomed the mighty Rangers - unbeaten all season - to Paisley and triumphed 3-2 to secure a spot in the semi-finals of the competition.

No wonder the Irishman celebrated the victory with such gusto, although he was not happy about the red card he received for the excitability of those celebrations.

Centre back Conor McCarthy struck a dramatic last-minute winner to deliver victory to St Mirren, who showed real spirit to defeat the Gers after a late Steven Davis goal looked like putting the game into extra time.

The Buddies are the first Scottish side to beat Rangers for nine months, an impressive achievement that could inject a real boost into their campaign.

The Paisley Saints are now unbeaten in eight games in all competitions and are starting to look like a solid side who can climb the table, as well as perhaps take some unlikely silverware in the League Cup.

Callum Davidson's St Johnstone team had a League Cup triumph of their own to celebrate on Wednesday evening, though the opposition were somewhat less formidable than Rangers.

The Perth Saints overcame Scottish Championship outfit Dunfermline on penalties after their quarter-final tie at East End Park ended 1-1 after extra time.

Davidson admitted after the game that he could not watch the penalty shootout that ended up taking his team to their first semi-final in a cup competition since winning the Scottish Cup in 2014.

The manager now needs to do something about his team's league form. The Perth Saints are down in ninth in the table, one place and two points ahead of Saturday's opponents St Mirren.

The 2-1 defeat at home to Livingston last weekend ended an 11-game unbeaten run in all competitions that had included a 1-1 draw at Celtic the week before.

Davidson will be hoping that St Mirren's cup heroics will have drained more energy from their players' legs than his own team's somewhat laboured win will have done.

St Mirren Scottish Premiership form: LLDWDW
St Mirren form (all competitions): WWWDWW

St Johnstone Scottish Premiership form: DWDDDL
St Johnstone form (all competitions): DDWDLD


Team News

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin pictured in August 2020© Reuters

St Mirren boss Goodwin has a full squad to choose from with no injuries or suspensions limiting his options.

He may well look to add some less tired legs to the side after all the emotion of that shock win over Rangers.

Callum Davidson likes to rotate his squad so will probably look to freshen up his lineup after Wednesday's marathon encounter.

Michael O'Halloran did not feature in midweek after picking up an injury against Celtic, but he might return on Saturday.

St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Alnwick; Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy, Tait; Connolly, McGrath, Doyle-Hayes, Erhahon, Mason; Obika

St Johnstone possible starting lineup:
Clark; Kerr, Gordon, McCart; McNamara, Bryson, McCann, Tanser; Wotherspoon, May; Kane


SM words green background

We say: St Mirren 2-0 St Johnstone

Our prediction is that St Mirren will continue their good run with a solid 2-0 victory over their visitors from Perth.

While the Perth Saints are a hard team to beat, they have struggled to win games in recent weeks and we think they will head home from Paisley on the back of a defeat.


Top betting tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win 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.Home/Away:data



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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 Johnstone win with a probability of 39.7%. A win for St Mirren had a probability of 32.44% and a draw had a probability of 27.9%.

The most likely scoreline for a St Johnstone win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.86%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.21%) and 0-2 (7.43%). The likeliest St Mirren win was 1-0 (10.45%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.1%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 1.7% likelihood.


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Game History

How you voted: St Mirren vs St Johnstone

St Mirren
60.0%
Draw
26.7%
St Johnstone
13.3%
15
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General view of St Mirren Park from 2009
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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Celtic1110103132831
2Aberdeen11101024101431
3RangersRangers11713168822
4Dundee UnitedDundee Utd125431813519
5Motherwell116141514119
6St Mirren134361722-515
7Dundee123361824-612
8Kilmarnock123361525-1012
9Ross County132651021-1112
10St Johnstone133191627-1110
11Hearts132381420-69
12Hibernian121561118-78


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