St Mirren

Mark Jardine
Fan writer

Celtic were in town at the weekend, which generally means a couple of things in the past few years of being a Saints fan.

Firstly, on what feels like the majority of occasions, the Buddies can be proud of their efforts despite earning none of the points.

It is a frustrating habit to have established, as it feels like an endorsement of diddy club status and accepting a pat on the head. However, on Saturday night, there is no denying the truth in the assessment.

Many questioned whether Craig McLeish would take lessons from the scoreline at Ibrox on League Cup duty and adopt a more pragmatic, defensively-minded approach.

Or would he double down on this season's commitment to playing out from the back, inviting the press, and focusing on chance creation above all else. The answer was decidedly the latter - and his side repaid that faith.

There were many things to be proud of. Nikolas Agrafiotis opening his account in black and white with a penalty that might still have been moving had the net not stopped it.

Ryan Carr, once again, displaying a level of quality that makes you wonder how he ended up here and not in some exotic setting.

Jacob Chapman's saves, passing ability and composure that would have some checking his blood pressure. Calvin Ramsay marauds as only he marauds, yet also shows remarkable restraint on his first-half yellow.

Ismeal Kabia increasingly looks like a winger that will give the league's right-backs sleepless Friday nights all season long.

On the night, a Luke Thomas tap-in might have earned the Saints what their endeavour deserved. But, in it was not tapped and points were not shared.

Secondly, the aftermath online among many will focus more on the perceived crime of having a smattering of empty seats in the home end than any genuine interest in what occurred on the pitch.

If there was any reasonable conversation to be had about why it's correct not to unseat season-ticket holders to hand over a larger away allocation, then I'm sure it would be had.

Instead, the usual chorus of "locking out fans while there are empty seats in the home end" rings out over 1,000 seats across three home stands - despite, as far as I'm aware, no similar general sale being available to Aberdeen fans or otherwise for the 1,500 tickets presumably unsold at Celtic Park the previous Wednesday.

A return to Ibrox on Wednesday night awaits, offering a chance to prove that five conceded in the cup was not a true reflection of this team and also some respite from having to answer Glaswegian questions about a one-away stand policy that has been universally popular with the club's fans and accountant alike.

Mark Jardine can be found at Misery Hunters, external

Watch all the highlights from Celtic's narrow 2-1 victory at St Mirren, including two disallowed goals for the visitors. Available to UK users only.

St Mirren fans, we asked for your views after Sunday's narrow defeat by Celtic.

Here's what some of you said:

William: I thought Saints were terrific and deserved a draw. Before the season start, I and many others didn't want Craig McLeish to be St Mirren boss but this man has proved us wrong. He has put together a well knitted side. It's very early days but the league table has us dreaming of a European run. What odds on us beating a not-so-formidable Rangers at Ibrox on Wednesday?

Jimbo: Proud of the Buddies. Played some fantastic football and should have got at least an equaliser. A very young team and inexperience shows at times but the effort they are putting in deserves something. We can only get better with this attitude. A lot of us fans are eating humble pie and its a way to go but boy this fella McLeish is getting us excited at the prospects opening up ahead if we continue in this vain.

Simon: A good performance despite losing. We were exposed on the break, and were guilty of giving the ball away cheaply on occasion. Plenty of reasons for optimism though, and the football is as entertaining as anything we've seen in decades at St Mirren.

John: Another very good performance We had some good chances to take a point and can consider ourselves very unlucky. Keep this up and we'll be nearer the top than the bottom. I can't understand why the ref blew for full-time when Saints were on an attacking phase so close to the Celtic goal, I'm sure it wouldn't have happened at the other end. Well done Saints, proud of you.

Champions Celtic made it five Scottish Premiership wins out of five and consigned St Mirren to a season's first league defeat after coming from behind in Paisley.

MATCH REPORT

HAVE YOUR SAY

Image source, SNS

St Mirren manager Craig McLeish: "I'm proud of the players and the effort they gave and what they tried to do throughout the game. The goals that we lose are probably disappointing from our point of view but Celtic have other chances in the game.

"We showed really good character. They never give up, they never give in. We then create chances, we have some of our best spells of play after we go 2-1 down. We're probably unlucky not to nick an equaliser.

"We're trying to improve every single week, every single game. You're not going to come up against that type of test very often and we have to make sure that we use it and we learn from it and we keep building on what we're doing it."

Image source, SNS

St Mirren midfielder Killian Phillips remains out with a shin injury but will return to training on the grass on Monday, while Liam Donnelly (abductor) and Malik Dijksteel (hamstring) are also out.

Celtic could include new signings Joel van den Berg and Jordan Lotomba, but Landon Emenalo is not ready.

Kasper Hogh and Kieran Tierney remain out with thigh strains, while Callum Osmand (ankle) is also absent and Jota is still working his way back from a long-term knee injury.

Image source, SNS

• Camilo Durán has scored six goals in seven appearances for Celtic in all competitions, including three in his last two Scottish Premiership matches. The Colombian is averaging 97 minutes-per-goal for Celtic in all competitions.

• Benjamin Nygren has five goal involvements in Celtic's four Scottish Premiership games this season, scoring three and assisting two. However, the Swede has scored or assisted against 10 of the 11 sides he has faced in the competition, failing to do so only against St. Mirren (three games).

• Under Martin O'Neill, Celtic have won all seven of their games against St. Mirren in all competitions by an aggregate score of 16-2. In the club's history, the only managers to face a specific opponent more while winning 100% of meetings are Jock Stein (11/11 v Raith Rovers), Brendan Rodgers (9/9 v Hamilton Academical), and Ange Postecoglou (8/8 v Ross County).

• Celtic have won each of their last 11 league games, including all four so far this season. Indeed, since the start of last season, the Hoops have won 23 of their 27 league matches under Martin O'Neill (D2 L2), averaging 2.63 points-per-game with the Northern Irishman in this time.

• St. Mirren have won four of their last six league matches (D2), more than their previous 20 before this (W3 D4 L13).

• When a side starting the day second in the table has played at home to the side starting the day top in the Scottish Premiership, the team in second has won on three of the last five occasions (D1 L1), more than the previous nine beforehand (W2 D3 L4).

• Celtic have won each of their last five league visits to St. Mirren by an aggregate score of 17-3.

• St. Mirren have lost 12 of their last 14 league games against Celtic (D2) since a 2-0 victory in September 2022.

Image source, SNS

Craig McLeish hopes St Mirren's start to the season continues to be "fun" as the Paisley side prepare to welcome Scottish Premiership champions and leaders Celtic on Saturday (20:00 BST).

The Buddies have won three and drawn the other of their opening four Scottish Premiership fixtures, with their most recent result a 1-0 win at Kilmarnock on Wednesday.

"Really looking forward to it," McLeish said of Celtic's visit. "We're in the middle of a kind of four-game stretch right now so it's been good fun.

"First two results were decent, we are probably still a little bit disappointed we didn't come away with the result against Motherwell [in the 3-3 draw] and a really good result away to Kilmarnock.

"And now we've got the two big ones coming up now."

After Saturday evening's fixture, St Mirren travel to face Rangers in Wednesday's rearranged Premiership match.

"Throughout my coaching, I have always wanted it to be… maybe fun gets interpreted differently," McLeish commented.

"Ultimately, you have to win games and put points on the board but I have to enjoy it. I have to enjoy watching our football, I have to enjoy coaching how we're playing.

"It's massive that the boys come in here every day and look forward to it and we use that word a lot, it has to be enjoyable, it has to be fun. I think it has been. I've loved every minute of it. I'm enjoying what we're doing. I enjoy the process. The boys are enjoying it.

"I don't want people to think we're just really relaxed and carrying on with things, but it has to best to be fun to coach, it has to be fun to play and it has to be fun to watch and that's the kind of messages we've used consistently since we've taken over."

St Mirren finished second bottom last season and won the Premiership play-off final against second-tier Partick Thistle.

"Come the end of the season we will be more tended to look at the league table and kind of see how it's all gone," McLeish said.

"So, while we're talking about that it has to be fun and enjoyable, ultimately we have to win games. No point in us enjoying ourselves and saying, 'we're having a great time', but we're holding up the table'.

"It is a really good opportunity on Saturday against a really strong side. We know that we need to be at our absolute best and we need to hope that Celtic aren't at their best to come away with a positive result. But we'll throw everything at it."

Image source, SNS

Jalmaro Calvin has left St Mirren by mutual consent, the club have confirmed.

The forward penned a two-year deal last summer which was due to expire in the summer of 2027 with the club holding an option to extend by a further 12 months.

The 23-year-old joined the Buddies from Jamaican outfit Cavalier FC last summer and went on to make 11 appearances for the Paisley club, scoring one goal.

Three of those appearances came this term in the League Cup, as did his goal, but the winger hasn't been part of the squad for any Premiership game this season.

Image source, SNS

St Mirren manager Craig McLeish wants to see a homegrown player quota introduced to Scottish football.

The suggestion comes as the Scottish Football Association prepare to host discussions in St Andrews, which all 42 league clubs have been invited to attend, aimed at improving the prospects for homegrown talent in Scotland.

McLeish, who worked in St Mirren's academy and with the SFA as a development coach before taking on his role as Buddies boss, insists more youth involvement at club level will help the national team and improve the Scottish game overall.

"We have to put a quota in place for young players being involved in match day squads," McLeish said.

"Everything else they talk about might be good ideas, might need to rely on other people to make decisions on it. The only thing that's going to change is if we put the quotas in place.

"I've got the benefit in that I've come through the academy system here, worked with the youth national teams.

"I'm fed up of coaches, youth coaches, getting battered in this country, academies getting battered, youth national teams getting a bad rep.

"I've been part of it. We went away to Spain and beat them at under-16s, the under-17s have played against the likes of Italy and Portugal and competed against them. There's a lot of good work going on in this country.

"There is a lot of talented coaches, a lot of talented players but until we change the rules then it's always going to hit a brick wall at some point.

"You can go really extreme with it like Norway have. In Norway, I think 16 have to be homegrown, locally-trained, you can only have nine non-homegrown players in your matchday squad.

"I would go extreme with it. The argument will be that then it harms our clubs competing in Europe.

"But you only need to look at like Bodo/Glimt and progressing to like latter stages of the Champions League. They are able to do that with the restrictions that they've got in place.

"It's not going to happen overnight, it will take a bit of time and there might be a little bit of short-term pain, but you even see that we've got clubs going out of Europe right now with no restrictions in place.

"I think we all should strive to develop Scottish football as a whole and part of that is developing the national team and it's the only way I see any sort of difference being made."

St Mirren fans, we asked for your views after Wednesday night's win at Kilmarnock made it 10 points from four games for the Buddies.

Here's what some of you said:

Kieran: Saints were very comfortable in the first half and gritted it out for the win, just need to put games to bed to early and save the blood pressure of fans. Saints are a great watch just now and hopefully can just get better with confidence growing. It's good to see a decent squad depth for a change

Paul: Picking up 10 points in our opening four games is tremendous but without goalkeeper Jacob Chapman's two penalty saves it would be seven points so big shout out,

John: That first half performance was simply outstanding, a joy to watch. Second half a different game but we defended well and kept Killie at bay. Not a failure in the team, well done Saints.

Andy: A real good solid performance. First half we played some great possession football and should have been further ahead at half time. The second half we showed that we can defend but once we made the substitutions the shape of the team changed and we gave up possession too easily. Overall a great performance, hopefully we can keep it going.

Pauline: We are a team gelling, really happy with the way things are going and especially for Craig McLeish as he had his doubters when given the position, but I think he is quietly surprising everyone.

Douglas: A superb first half performance but the second half was poor. Never tested the Kilmarnock keeper once and only desperate defending kept Killie out. Show that second half display against Celtic and we will get taken apart. Show the first half display for 90 minutes and a win is on the cards.

Watch all the highlights as St Mirren continued their strong start to the season with a narrow victory against a struggling Kilmarnock side still searing for their first Premiership point. Available to UK users only.

Image source, SNS

St Mirren manager Craig McLeish: "Second half, our discipline and shape defensively... they didn't create clear cut chances that hurt us.

"But I want to play the way we did in the first half for 90 minutes. I know that's probably not realistic. There'll be times we have to suffer without the ball. We had to do that in the second half but we were solid defensively.

"The first half was great. It's what we want it to look like, played with real quality but disappointed we didn't get a goal to follow the first one.

"Someone just told me it's our first win here in over 10 years. Just delighted to get another three points.

"The boys are setting the standard and raising the bar every week, and we have to keep building on it. I want the second half performance to mirror the first half, but I have to accept sometimes we have to see games out.

"It's our third clean sheet of the season, delighted for Jacob Chapman and the back line."

Neil McCann was again left to rue Kilmarnock's defensive frailties as a home defeat by St Mirren left them without a point from their opening four Scottish Premiership matches of the campaign.

Read the full match report here.

Let us know your thoughts here.

Image source, SNS

Kilmarnock defender Robbie Deas will have some scans after coming off injured in the first half against Dundee United on Saturday.

But attacker Ieuan Owen and midfielders Aaron Tshibola and Erik Ring are back in contention for St Mirren's Scottish Premiership visit on Wednesday.

St Mirren are without midfielder Liam Donnelly and winger Malik Dijksteel.

Image source, SNS

• When the two sides last met in Premiership action, Kilmarnock came out on top 3-0 in Paisley last season. Findlay Curtis scored in the 46th and 68th minute with an own goal by the Buddies' Miguel Freckleton.

• Kilmarnock are unbeaten in the past four Premiership matches between the two sides. A win for St Mirren would be their first against Kilmarnock in the league since March 2025. Killie during that period have outscored the Buddies with nine goals for and three against.

• Hosts Kilmarnock have lost each of their two previous Premiership contests at Rugby Park this season. St Mirren were victorious in their only prior league contest away from home this season.

• In three league matches this season, Kilmarnock have three losses. St Mirren, meanwhile, have two wins and one draw.

Mark Jardine
Fan writer

Declan John, marauding from his role in defence, perhaps offers more of an insight into the changing face of St Mirren football than would be expected. A chasm of drastically altered tactical intent is bridged by John, linking a heroic late sprint at Hampden to a goal on Sunday that channelled Carlos Alberto in the Azteca.

The popular Welshman arrived in Paisley as emergency cover for Scott Tanser before quickly establishing himself as first choice on his preferred left flank, extending his short-term stay into a two-year deal with reasonable haste.

While Tanser deserves plenty plaudits for his career in black and white, John carries the impression of being straight out of central casting for a Stephen Robinson side. Strong in the tackle, boundless endurance and a full-blooded willingness to commit forward and get the ball into the box.

In December last year, as Robinson's reign in Paisley reached its undisputed high point with national silverware, hindsight will tell you this was also the beginning of the end. A fabulous period of sustained Buddies joy began to peter towards an inevitable conclusion - change in the dugout and on the pitch.

This zenith can be neatly represented by John's lung-busting surge forward in the latter stages of the second half. When many were running on empty, John summoned all that he had available to outstrip the fresh legs of Celtic's Colby Donovan over 80 yards, somehow retaining the composure to then feed Jonah Ayunga and send the Saints into ecstasy with a 3-1 League Cup final win.

All with any affection for the Buddies in Hampden celebrated in a moment that seemed to last a lifetime, save for the exhausted left-back who collapsed in a heap where he had stood. His race was run and he made way for Tanser as the din still rang in the ears of all left at the national stadium.

This was Robbo-ball at its most devastating. Extracting every last ounce of effort and commitment from a united dressing room, punishing a toiling opponent with absolute ruthlessness. John, you would assume, was of this era.

Fast-forward a mere nine months and change is in the air, as demonstrated in Sunday's 3-3 draw against Motherwell. St Mirren hold the early confidence of a side entrusted by their new manager, Craig McLeish, to play out from the back in front of, pound for pound, the angriest stand in Scottish football. Down early and looking bruised by last season's aesthetic standard bearers Motherwell, the Saints clawed one back through Paul Nsio before John had his say.

Winning the ball back in his own half, John swivelled and found a team-mate yet continued his run. The selfless drive of Hampden made way, hurtling towards the Motherwell box in perfect stride as silky one-touch passing from his colleagues delivered the ball back on a plate. Where convention would have seen the ball rolled across the box for an onrushing attacker, the left foot of our left-back instead found a gap at the near post of Alex Paulsen's goal frame.

Two St Mirren sides, diametrically opposed in their approach, both characterised in the big moments by their left-back who has already renewed through to 2028 in Paisley.

Bring on Rugby Park.

Mark Jardine can be found at Misery Hunters, external

Jonathan Sutherland
Sportscene presenter

Jack Walton (Dundee United): Five saves and a clean sheet - job done.

Felix Passlack (Hibernian): An assist from the consistently impressive German.

Bert Esselink (Dundee United): Powerful performance and an away clean sheet.

Grant Hanley (Hibernian): Was it intentional? Who cares. Great assist for Martin Boyle.

Will Ferry (Dundee United): Glorious strike with his less favoured right foot as United put Kilmarnock to the sword.

Callum Wright (Hibernian): Another goal for the English midfielder just gives him the nod here over new addition Jacob Devaney, who was also very good.

Emmanuel Agyei (Dundee United): Two key passes and a goal from the Ghana international.

Alex Lowry (Motherwell): Five key passes and always looking to get Motherwell on the front foot.

Samuel Ramos (St Mirren): A goal and two assists from the Spaniard.

Camilo Duran (Celtic): The difference maker against Falkirk with two goals.

Mehdi Merghem (Dundee United): The Algerian more than played his part in an outstanding away display with two assists.

We asked for your views after St Mirren played out a thrilling six-goal Scottish Premiership draw with Motherwell.

Here's what some of you had to say:

Douglas: If this is how the season is going to unfold, then the team are going to take us to the highs and lows of excitement! There is a lot to like about this team and, given Motherwell have been given lots of plaudits for their style and fluency, I think we matched them extremely well.

Stuart: My pre-season nerves have been dispelled. Craig McLeish has a vision and the players are fully buying into it. We will be entertaining to watch and will have no relegation fears. Recruitment has been good.

John: In the second half, I thought the Buddies were excellent. They played Motherwell at their own game, playing with pace, but just lacking the finish to seal the three points. Two points dropped? A point gained? No idea, but it was brilliant entertainment.

Andy: Unlucky not to win the game, but overall a great performance by St Mirren. New signings look like they will bring a different dynamic to the team from last season and overall I'm a happy Saints supporter. Good start to the season.

Ian: One of the most entertaining football matches I have been to and a significantly better performance than the 0-5 defeat to Motherwell last season.

St Mirren striker Jake Young is set for a move to Australia to join Perth Glory. (Scottish Sun)

Read the rest of Monday's gossip.