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

St Mirren will look to extend their unbeaten run to six matches in all competitions when they face St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday.

The visitors, meanwhile, find themselves in 11th place, but they can take confidence from the fact they have avoided defeat in their last three games.

Match preview

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin pictured on May 9, 2021 © Reuters

St Mirren claimed their third consecutive away victory in all competitions when they emerged from Easter Road with a 1-0 victory on Saturday.

Connor Ronan's second-half strike proved enough to help his side edge out Hibernian as the Buddies extended their unbeaten run to five games in all competitions.

Saturday's victory leaves St Mirren in ninth place in the Scottish Premiership, and they will look to continue their ascent of the league table with a positive result on Wednesday.

Despite enjoying a fine run of form, Wednesday's hosts may be pessimistic about their chances of victory against St Johnstone after winning just two home league games this season.

Rather than defeats, a habit of drawing home encounters has halted St Mirren's progress, with Jim Goodwin's troops seeing seven of their 12 home league matches end level – more than any other side in the Scottish top flight.

St Johnstone's Jason Kerr celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates on August 5, 2021 © Reuters

As for St Johnstone, they currently reside in the relegation playoff spot, but they have experienced an upturn in fortunes in recent weeks.

After suffering eight consecutive league defeats, St Johnstone will enter the midweek fixture off the back of a three-game unbeaten run.

Wednesday's visitors drew 0-0 with Dundee before picking up a 2-1 win over Livingston, and they played out another goalless draw on Saturday at home to Dundee United.

Despite an improvement in performances, Callum Davidson's side continue to struggle in front of goal having failed to score in 14 of their 24 league games this season.

In fact, St Johnstone currently hold the worst goalscoring record in the league, having found the net on just 13 occasions this season, and they will need to find a clinical edge if they are to avoid relegation.

St Mirren Scottish Premiership form:

St Mirren form (all competitions):

St Johnstone Scottish Premiership form:

St Johnstone form (all competitions):

Team News

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson pictured on August 5, 2021 © Reuters

The hosts are expected to be without Scott Tanser and Eamonn Brophy due to injury issues.

Alex Gogic was ineligible to play against his parent club on Saturday, but he will return to the matchday squad for the midweek contest.

St Mirren are expected to keep changes to a minimum, although Curtis Main could replace Alex Grieve upfront.

Meanwhile, St Johnstone are without the suspended Melker Hallberg, who was sent off at the weekend.

Jahmal Hector-Ingram is still waiting to make his debut for the club after joining in January and the 23-year-old may have to settle for a place on the bench once again on Wednesday.

Stevie May is one of only three St Johnstone players to have scored more than one league goal this term, and he will start Wednesday's contest upfront alongside Callum Hendry.

St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Alnwick; Fraser, Shaughnessy, Dunne, Tait; Power, Ronan, Kiltie; Henderson, Jones, Main

St Johnstone possible starting lineup:
Clark; Cleary, Gordon, McCart; Brown, MacPherson, Butterfield, Crawford, Booth; May, Hendry

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We say: St Mirren 0-0 St Johnstone

Although St Johnstone have started to pick up points, they are still struggling in front of goal and with the last two contests between the sides ending in goalless draws, we think that the two teams will play out another stalemate on Wednesday.

Top tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 1.5 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.

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 40.36%. A win for St Johnstone had a probability of 30.22% and a draw had a probability of 29.4%.

The most likely scoreline for a St Mirren win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.75%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (8.05%) and 2-1 (7.81%). The likeliest St Johnstone win was 0-1 (11.41%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.35%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 7.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that St Mirren would win this match.