St Mirren and St Johnstone go head to head on Sunday afternoon with both clubs still searching for their first Scottish Premiership win of the season.
While the home side have had a week to prepare for this contest, St Johnstone must attempt to overcome the disappointment of exiting the Europa Conference League on Thursday night.
Match preview
© Reuters
After the domestic cup success of last season, the majority of St Johnstone's focus in recent weeks has been on trying to qualify for a European competition.
However, despite threatening an upset against Galatasaray and pushing Austrian side LASK Linz, the dream is over for Callum Davidson and his squad for another year.
Davidson now has the difficult task of trying to rouse a group of players who are yet to win a match during normal time all season, a streak now lasting eight games.
Draws against Ross County and Motherwell have kept St Johnstone above the relegation zone in the top flight, but defeat on Sunday could realistically leave the club in the bottom two heading into the international break.
The Saints also possess the worst attacking record in the division, a concerning statistic when taking into account that they are yet to play any of the higher-profile clubs.
Having been competitive in three fixtures against Scottish Premiership opposition earlier in the month, St Mirren would have been optimistic about putting up a challenge at Celtic.
Any hopes of a famous win were ended as early as the 19th minute courtesy of Alan Power's red card, the visitors eventually going down by a 6-0 scoreline.
Jim Goodwin had reasons to feel aggrieved about a disallowed goal which probably should have stood, but the Buddies were well beaten at Celtic Park.
St Mirren are now winless since defeating Partick Thistle in the League Cup on July 25, heaping the pressure on Goodwin and his squad to collect points from the upcoming double-header at their home ground.
- D
- L
- L
- W
- W
- D
- L
- D
- L
- D
- D
- L
- D
- L
- D
- D
- L
- L
Team News
© Reuters
Power joins Kristian Dennis in serving a suspension for this game, the latter being sent off for violent conduct against Hearts earlier this month.
The absence of Power gives Goodwin the chance to hand a recall to Eamonn Brophy, who could join Curtis Main in a two-man attack.
St Johnstone midfielder David Wotherspoon is in line to return to the starting lineup, three days after being sent off within seconds of being introduced as a substitute against LASK.
Wotherspoon could get the nod over Alistair McCann, while further changes are expected with Davidson likely to freshen up his side.
Manchester United loanee Reece Devine may be handed a chance at left wing-back and Stevie May could be preferred to Michael O'Halloran.
St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Alnwick; Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy; Flynn, McGrath, Erhalon, Tanser; Kiltie; Brophy, Main
St Johnstone possible starting lineup:
Clark; Muller, Kerr, McCart; Rooney, Wotherspoon, Davidson, Middleton, Devine; Kane, May
We say: St Mirren 2-1 St Johnstone
Davidson will call upon his players to produce one last performance before they take a well-earned break during the international fixtures. However, tiredness could play its part here, leading us to predict a narrow win for the home team.
Top tip
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 37.35%. A win for St Johnstone had a probability of 34.52% and a draw had a probability of 28.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a St Mirren win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.6%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (7.88%) and 2-0 (6.93%). The likeliest St Johnstone win was 0-1 (11.04%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.19%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 9.7% likelihood.
