St Mirren

Mark Jardine
Fan writer

What's that, you've got your hopes up after smashing five past Derek McInnes? Well, here's a 90-minute gut punch at the hands of his former assistant.

Against Kilmarnock in Paisley, all seemed to come off in a manner not seen since Ron Weasley thought he'd gubbed an entire vial of liquid luck before his Gryffindor quidditch trial. Killie had a bit more of the ball, St Mirren put away all of their chances. Ruthless Saints at their most effective.

Saturday's trip to Dundee offered the counterweight to such joy, ensuring that the scales of football optimism returned to their normal balanced state. All the hallmarks of a decent and dominant performance, but nothing to show for it.

The Buddies rained shots on Trevor Carson's goal. If you'll permit me to slide on my fitba-nerd specs and open up my stats-box, and I hate myself for doing so, the data paints a fairly stark picture.

Last week, the five-goal Buddies vastly outperformed their xG (expected goals) tally of 1.55 while Killie's single goal was near-enough par. Saturday's printout shows a far more brutal picture.

Dundee's two goals, handed on a plate, can be considered as double the reward for their 1.1 xG. Meanwhile, Stephen Robinson's side had two-thirds of the possession and racked up nearly 2.6 xG for the day - almost double their season average. All that opportunity created, but a literal bagel/donut/cheerio to show for it.

This disparity creates something of a dilemma for Saints when Ross County visit Paisley to close out the pre-split stage of the season.

The task at hand is clear, regardless of whether Hearts leave the possibility of sneaking top-six status open, only three points will do.

On a perfect day, that three points ends any residual jeopardy for another dramatic campaign and punches a top-half ticket. Should Hearts see off Motherwell and suit their own ambitions, the lower table is simply too tight to hand any home points to a rival.

Heading into week 33 of the season, four points currently separate mid-table comfort from an agonising play-off.

Herein lies the dilemma. Do you trust in the numbers and go for the same again, with the belief that there will be no defensive charity handed out to a gleeful Simon Murray equivalent?

Or, do you revert to something more physical and seek to grind the points in more of a battle?

See you on the other side.

Mark Jardine can be found at Misery Hunters, external

Watch Sportscene analysis of Zach Hemming's goalkeeping mistake in St Mirren's defeat to Dundee.

Watch highlights as Dundee win 2-0 against St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership.

Available in UK only

We asked for your views on St Mirren's 2-0 defeat against Dundee.

Here's what some of you said:

Derek: Unfortunately our inconsistency will likely cost us dearly. The team can play absolutely superbly one week then get beaten, no matter how well we play the next. Our consistency needs to improve.

Douglas: This result probably relegates us to the bottom six, not that the possession or the quality of outfield play deserves that prediction, but we now really depend on others helping us get there. The manager is spot on, you can't doubt the effort or at times the skill, but if you don't take your chances then you deserve to lose.

John: We played well, but our goalkeeper's mistake for their second goal gave us a mountain to climb. Top six is probably gone now, but even so we've done okay considering the multiple setbacks this season.

Huey: I've followed Saints through good times and not so good times since 1977, but I can't such an inconsistent season. We undoubtedly have the squad to be a top-six team but there's no way of predicting what version of St Mirren is going to turn up from week to week. We win against the odds, lose games we should win, draw/lose games we've been ahead in and ship goals after 80 minutes. I believe in Stephen Robinson but this has been a frustrating season - we create lots of chances but miss far too many of them, and our game management is shocking. Onwards, regardless.

Image source, SNS

• Dundee have scored in their last seven games in the Premiership, their longest scoring streak this season.

• St Mirren have failed to score in 12 of their 32 games, only Ross County (14) have failed to score more often in the Premiership this season.

• Simon Murray scored after just one minute and 27 seconds, the fastest goal for Dundee in the Premiership this season.

• St Mirren attempted 20 shots in this game, their highest total in a single match in the Premiership this season.

Did you take in St Mirren's 2-0 defeat by Dundee or were you following from home?

Have your say on the match

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: "We controlled the game but our quality was poor. We have three or four really good gilt-edged chances that we miss.

"There's a lot of good in it but the end product was poor all over the pitch. If your end product's poor and you make individual errors, which we did, we get punished for, then you lose football matches.

"The disappointment is the consistency, we haven't followed a great result up anytime this season. I can't ever fault the effort, I can't ever fault the desire of the players, we just lacked quality in that final third."

Image source, SNS

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Scotland at Dens Park

They may have lost the game but there was little to be critical about St Mirren's overall performance.

They created numerous chances but were up against a Dundee defence out to prove their critics wrong.

With Ross County at home in their final game before the split, they will fancy themselves to get all three points next time out.

However, they are now reliant on Hearts falling short this weekend and next in order to make the top six.

Image source, SNS

Image source, SNS

Dundee are still without Lyall Cameron and Scott Fraser (groin) but Antonio Portales, Seb Palmer-Houlden and Clark Robertson are all back in contention after injury.

St Mirren's Toyosi Olusanya returns from suspension. Conor McMenamin has started training again after a long-term calf complaint but the game comes too soon.

Alex Iacovitti had an epidural as he looks to recover from a back problem while Elvis Bwomono (calf) and Evan Mooney (ankle) are still out.

Lewis Irons
BBC Scotland

Image source, SNS

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson says his players "haven't had enough credit" as they target a top-six finish for the third season in a row.

Saints are aiming for their first win against Dundee this season in their penultimate match before the split, and Robinson believes his players have the mentality required to finish in the top half yet again.

The Paisley men are currently seventh, a point behind Hearts.

"Personally, I don't think the players have had enough credit for it," the Northern Irishman said.

"It's now expected that St Mirren should be in the running for a top-six place and I read articles saying we should be in there. I don't know what that's based on, bar the quality of the players and the quality of the recruitment. It's all credit to them.

"I've said it all along but I think with about eight games to go we were in the running, now to be a point off the top six and to have a real chance again for three years in a row is a real achievement, no matter what happens in the end.

"It's been a trying season but it just shows the character of these players that they're still in this position."

Robinson says his players believe they belong in the top six.

"I believe they do. Within our dressing room we believe that we're a very good side," he added.

"Sometimes things go for you, sometimes things are out of your control which a lot of it has been this season.

"The resilience they've shown, the quality they've shown, is testament to the group."

Image source, SNS

Stephen Robinson has been speaking to the media before St Mirren's trip to Dundee on Saturday.

Here are the key lines from his press conference:

• After the 5-1 trouncing of Kilmarnock last week, the squad is in a good place and the "icing on the cake is getting the emphatic results".

• Robinson and his staff try to relieve pressure on the players by "making it a little bit more light-hearted around the training ground".

• On potentially getting a top-six spot for the third consecutive season, Robinson says: "I personally don't think the players have had enough credit for it."

• With Premiership reconstruction back on the agenda, the Buddies boss says the Premiership "needs to be bigger to allow development".

• He adds: "I'm not Scottish but developing young Scottish players is at the forefront of a lot of people's minds. That's easier to do when you're not looking over your shoulder every game thinking you could get relegated, which is a catastrophe for the football club."

• Reflected on hitting milestones, with beating Rangers twice and getting a European place, he says "we're still aiming to grow the football club from the foundations up".

• Robinson is glad to have Toyosi Olusanya back from suspension as he provides a "real option" up front. This weekend is too soon for Mikael Mandron, Conor McMenamin, Evan Mooney and Alex Gogic, but they will provide a "big boost" in the coming weeks.

• Robinson compliments his chief scout Martin Foyle: "He produces miracles every year. The vast majority, we've got a lot of it right and a lot of it's down to him."

• He praised Mooney's work ethic and says the 17-year-old is "making great progress and he's a real example" to the club's other young players.

• Robinson insists Dundee are a "big, big threat" despite having the leakiest defence in the Premiership and sitting second bottom.

Image source, SNS

• After their 2-1 victory in December, Dundee are looking to pick up successive top-flight league wins over St Mirren for the first time since August 2014 (three in a row).

• St Mirren have only suffered one defeat in their last eight top-flight away games against Dundee (W4 D3), going down 4-0 in November 2023.

• In 2025, Dundee have picked up fewer points in the Scottish Premiership (9 – W2 D3 L7) than any other side. The Dark Blues have won just one of their past 10 league games (D3 L6), and none of their past eight at home (D3 L5).

• St Mirren's last four league games have all seen at least four goals scored (21 in total – 5.25 per game), with the Buddies scoring 10 and conceding 11 in this spell. Indeed, their 5-1 win over Kilmarnock last time out was the first time they scored five goals in a Premiership match since a 5-1 victory at Dundee United in January 2021.

• Dundee have dropped a league-high 23 points from winning positions in the Scottish Premiership this season, forfeiting a two-goal lead against Rangers last time out to lose 4-3. On the other hand, only Celtic and Motherwell (both 4) have recovered fewer points from losing positions in the competition this term than St Mirren (6).

Image source, SNS

Is the Scottish Premiership in need of a shake-up? If so, how do you go about it?

News emerged on Tuesday that the SPFL is considering changing Scotland's top flight to a 10, 14 or 16-team division in an attempt to help reduce fixture congestion.

In its current 12-team form, the clubs split into a top and bottom six after 33 rounds of matches, with 38 rounds played altogether.

That format has been in place since 2000-01 and retaining that model is also an option, but reports have also suggested the split could be scrapped.

For any fresh structure to , it needs the backing of 11 of the 12 Premiership clubs, and eight out of 10 from the Championship plus 75% of League One and League Two combined.

And judging by the fan reaction to the mere thought of reducing the league to a 10-team division, you would have to assume that idea is already unlikely.

Speaking on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast, former Premiership players Cammy Bell and Cillian Sheridan provided their views on a potential restructure.

Expansion is the only option for former Rangers and Kilmarnock goalkeeper Bell, while ex-Celtic striker Sheridan would like to see the split retained.

"I think we need a little bit of freshness about our game," Bell said. "So, if we can expand that league, then absolutely do it. We've got big enough clubs now that can generate good crowds.

"We're at a time just now where we've got the potential of trying to change it and certainly for me it's got to be expansion."

"The split works now," Sheridan added. "When I first came over and saw the whole split thing, I just never really got it. But in the past few years it has been quite interesting.

"If the league is wrapped up, if relegation is wrapped up, it does add a little bit of excitement to things in of teams getting into the top six and having to get European football."

Mark Jardine
Fan writer

Like the Curse of the Bambino, St Mirren's multi-club and multi-manager hopelessness when faced with Derek McInnes has loomed larger and larger the longer it has lasted.

Paisley-born but Morton-raised, McInnes has had a stranglehold on the Buddies for more than 30 games.

There is one loss in there, but it certainly hasn't been in his time with Kilmarnock. Having turned a two-goal lead into a 5-2 defeat last season, Saints fans could be forgiven for losing all hope of shaking this particular boogeyman.

They needn't have worried.

Electric from the first whistle, a fired-up Saints team piled forward in number and left a broken pile of previously untouchable opponents in their wake.

Matty Kennedy, Lewis Mayo, Liam Donnelly and others have had much joy on many occasions against black and white in recent seasons. On this wet and blustery March afternoon, however, they couldn't believe what had hit them.

Caolan Boyd-Munce had his finest hour in a Saints shirt, pulling strings and setting the tone for a comprehensive thrashing. Yes, two superb strikes deserve plenty of praise - but that tells a fraction of the story of his afternoon.

Denied the chance to select top scorer Toyosi Olusanya by ludicrous suspension, and with Mika Mandron working back to fitness, Stephen Robinson was forced to improvise.

Jonah Ayunga led the line, looking every bit the electric presence that first arrived in Paisley in Robinson's first summer. He was ed in the frontline by Roland Idowu, the mercurial and creative Irishman who has sometimes looked like he doesn't quite fit the image of a Robinson player.

Forced to play through the lines and make the most of the duo's strengths, as opposed to focusing on the pace of Olusanya on the shoulder of the last man, St Mirren were unstoppable.

If Idowu and Ayunga's tussle with Mayo, Joe Wright and Corrie Ndaba was a boxing match, the ref would have waved it off after only a few rounds.

In truth, once six-yard sitters at the feet of Richard Taylor and other chances are ed for, the final four-goal deficit could have been larger.

The fury from Zach Hemming and colleagues at conceding that late penalty to surrender their clean sheet gives some indication as to the standards being strived for.

Had the first 10 minutes on Saturday happened on Fifa instead of the grass at the SMISA Stadium, Del would have quit to the main menu and launched his controller at his telly.

Fingers crossed this is a momentum shift and not a momentary respite from the Premiership's harshest curse.

Mark Jardine can be found at Misery Hunters, external

With two matches to go until the Scottish Premiership splits, only four points separate the teams in sixth and ninth as they fight to squeeze into the top half and potentially secure European football next season.

Dundee United's narrow win in Dingwall means they are almost certain to be in the top half regardless of their results against Hearts and St Johnstone before the split.

Data company Opta give Jim Goodwin's side a 99% chance of being in the top six given their six-point buffer and superior goal difference to St Mirren, Motherwell and Ross County.

At the other end of the spectrum, they rate County's chance as next to zero, at 0.3%, given they have a four-point gap to make up on sixth-placed Hearts with a far poorer goal difference.

Hearts are only one point above both St Mirren and Motherwell, but the Tynecastle side's superior goal difference is almost worth an extra point at this stage, and they are heavy favourites to sneak in with a 66% chance.

However, Neil Critchley's side play Motherwell away in their final match before the split, which could prove crucial given the congested nature of the table.

St Mirren are away to Dundee and home to Ross County as they attempt to overhaul Hearts, buoyed by their dominant 5-1 win over Kilmarnock on Saturday.

And Motherwell boss Michael Wimmer is hoping to bounce back from their defeat by Aberdeen when they travel to Rugby Park next weekend before that all-important match against Hearts.

"The league always feels - Celtic and Rangers are a bit different - like you could beat everyone," said John Sutton, who played as a striker for three of the sides hoping for a top-six spot in Hearts, St Mirren and Motherwell.

"The split gets knocked a little bit, I really liked it as a player. You make the top six, and it's game on, trying to get European qualification.

"I think if you take Celtic and Rangers out of things to an extent, every game's a very tricky game. I expect the picture to change this weekend and I expect it to change the following weekend as well."

Ryan Alebiosu: Defensively sound for St Mirren, plus a threat going forward.

Caolan Boyd-Munce: A double in a stunning display in the Buddies midfield.

Jonah Ayunga: Provided a lot of the impetus in what was a fantastic day for St Mirren. Two assists and also won the penalty.

Watch all the highlights as St Mirren cruised to a 5-1 victory at home to Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership.

Available to UK s only

St Mirren fans, we asked for your views on the emphatic 5-1 victory over Kilmarnock. Here's a taste of what you had to say...

Colin: What a fantastic performance. We played with a great intensity and never gave Kilmarnock a minute on the ball. Some top drawer finishing too, even without our top scorer.

Douglas: A five star performance. A result like this has been coming. Every player was excellent and confidence will be high for next week at Dundee.

John: Played like a team. Absolutely solid from back to front. Everyone stuck to their job and there was no daft mistakes. A joy to watch. The top six is back on.

Douglas M: If a hoodoo existed against Killie, this was certainly the way to exorcise it. Chased them down from the start and kept the pressure on, even into the wind in the second half. Caolan Boyd-Munce will get the credit for his two goals, but the entire midfield played a stormer. We never took the gas off throughout and thoroughly deserved a thumping win.

Jim: A great all round performance against Kilmarnock with a really good positive attitude. I was particularly impressed with the attacking display. The strikers worked well together and a very energetic midfield kept them going. Here's hoping for a continuation over the next two games.

Neil: St Mirren handled the conditions better and kept the ball on the deck. Our midfielders ran the show and the finishing from Boyd-Munce and Mark O'Hara was clinical. Killie are a shadow of last year's team.

Image source, SNS

• St. Mirren have scored in their last five games in the Premiership, their longest scoring streak this season, scoring 12 in that run.

• Stephen Robinson's side have beaten Kilmarnock for the first time in the Premiership since 6 February 2021, a run of 10 games without a win.

• The Paisley club have conceded 13 goals in the last 15 minutes of the second half, only Ross County (17) and Hibernian (16) have conceded more in the Premiership this season.

• St. Mirren have conceded nine penalties in the Premiership this season, more than any other team.

• They also scored five goals in a game for the first time since 27 January 2021 against Dundee United (W 5-1).

• Bruce Anderson has scored nine goals in the Premiership this season (one in this game), more than any other Kilmarnock player. He has now scored six goals in 16 appearances in the Premiership against St. Mirren.

• Rory McKenzie made his 300th appearance in the Premiership.

• Kilmarnock have failed to score a first-half goal in 23 of their 31 games, no team has failed to do so more often in the Premiership this season.

• The Ayrshire side have now failed to win any of their last 12 matches when conceding first in the Premiership, since a victory over Hearts on 30 October 2024.

A Caolan Boyd-Munce double helped St Mirren blow Kilmarnock away and keep alive their hopes of a top-six finish.

Were you at the game in Paisley or following along from elsewhere?

Give us your thoughts on the game here.