Jim Goodwin is hoping to bring in players with pace with the January transfer window now open. 

Saints lost speed merchants Ilkay Durmus and Dylan Connolly in the summer after the expiry of their contracts.

While the manager was happy with the recruitment in the summer, he feels the side is missing the pace that Durmus and Connolly brought to the side last season.

But he also confessed that some players may leave the club during the window. 

We've got targets obviously," he said speaking to stmirren.com.

"There's not a huge amount of money in the budget.

"I believe we built a strong squad in the summer and we will try and add to it. We need a bit of pace in the team and that's something we will try and do.

"There's obviously going to be one or two players who are not going to be happy with the lack of game time as well so there might be one or two go the other way as well.

"But I don't want to lose anybody. I would love to be able to strengthen and that's what we will try and do over the coming weeks.

"We will hopefully come out of this break stronger than the way we finished (2021)."

Jak Alnwick believes the challenges St Mirren have faced over the last week or so can galvanise the squad.

The goalkeeper was among 12 first-team players who missed the Buddies cinch Premiership match against Celtic last week.

Despite the number of players unavailable due to a combination of covid and injury issues, Saints picked up a point against the Glasgow side with a valiant performance in a 0-0 draw at the SMiSA Stadium. 

Jak and a number of players then returned to the squad for the narrow defeat against league leaders Rangers at Ibrox on Boxing Day despite very little time on the training pitch. 

The players will return to training next week before football resumes in the middle of January after the winter break was brought forward. 

It's been a difficult week but sometimes stuff like this can make you come out the other side stronger," Jak told stmirren.com. 

"We had lads who hadn't trained in two weeks and lads who played on Wednesday night that hadn't kicked a ball for a while. 

"When we do the analysis on these games after the break I think it will bring the group together a little bit more.

"I think the break comes at a good time for us.

"Everyone would love to see football the way it was with fans in and no breaks but the world that we live in at the minute means it's going to be a bit disrupted."

The Saints shot stopper also took time to reflect on 2021 as a whole as we head into the New Year.

Jim Goodwin's side reached the semi-finals of both the League and Scottish Cups last season, while securing their highest league finish since 1989.

But there has also been frustration with the Buddies currently sitting ninth in the cinch Premiership having drawn more matches this season than any other top flight side. 

It's had massive ups and downs as football does," the goalkeeper said of 2021.

"We had the highs of reaching the semi-finals last season and just missing out on top six by a goal. This season we have been up-down-up-down and that's football. 

"You see fans who are getting frustrated because we have that ability to be pushing higher and higher. This club has scraped through relegation play-offs at times but we are trying to set up this club so that long-term we aren't even thinking about relegations or anything like that.

"It's been a tough year for everyone across the world and the sacrifices that everyone has made at this club - fans included - has been immense.

"For the fans, I just want to say that I hope they had a great Christmas and have a great New Year and look after themselves.

"Hopefully we can have everyone back after the New Year and we will be fit and raring to kick on for the rest of the season."

I'm pretty sure everybody is looking forward to a bit of a break. We need to recharge the batteries and be ready to go again when we start back."

St Mirren were defeated in the final game of 2021 as the Buddies lost 2-0 to Rangers at Ibrox.

Scott Wright and Alfredo Morelos scored in the first-half to give the league leaders all three points as we head into the winter break. 

Jim Goodwin was able to welcome Jak Alnwick, Ryan Flynn, Alan Power, Ethan Erhahon and Jamie McGrath back into the squad after missing the midweek draw with Celtic.

But Rangers dominated early with Ianis' Hagi's strike deflected on the edge of the area an Alnwick was brave to gather the spinning ball ahead of Morelos. The Colombian striker headed over from close range six minutes later after getting on the end of a Borna Barisic cross from the left.

Rangers early pressure told with the Ibrox side taking the lead on 14 minutes when Wright headed home following James Tavernier's corner. Alnwick got a hand on it but could only claw away after the ball had crossed the line. 

Tavernier almost turned from provider to goalscorer on 20 minutes when his deflected strike went inches by the post on 20 minutes.

Saints had a good opportunity on 24 minutes when Curtis Main was fouled by Connor Goldson on the edge of the Rangers box with the Light Blues defender going into the book for his challenge. McGrath stepped up to take for the Buddies but had his effort blocked by the defensive wall.

Rangers doubled their advantage three minutes later when Morelos slammed home from close range. The striker had seen his header well saved by Alnwick, but he was the quickest on the follow-up to put the home side 2-0 in front. 

The Saints goalkeeper was forced into another powerful stop from Morelos with less than 10 minutes of the half remaining as Rangers continued their pressure. It was the first of two saves in a minute for Alnwick with the stopper down to save from Joe Aribo 60 seconds later. Morelos almost scored his second when he headed Ryan Kent's cross just wide as the first-half drew to a close. 

Saints won their first corner of the match early in the second-half but couldn't make use of the rare opportunity. Tanser's ball in was headed clear and Rangers went on the counter with skipper Joe Shaughnessy booked for pulling back Wright. Barisic stepped up to take the resultant free-kick and curled into the side-netting. 

The home side almost added a third just after the hour mark when Wright cracked the post from inside the area before Barisic fired the follow-up over from the edge of the area. 10 minutes later Alnwick made a good save to push away a powerful Tavernier strike from 20 yards. 

The game fizzled out with Rangers' two first-half goals enough to see them take the points.

Full-Time: Rangers 2-0 St Mirren

St Mirren: Alnwick, Fraser, Shaughnessy (c), Dunne, Henderson, Flynn (Offord 80), Power, Erhahon, Tanser, McGrath (Kiltie 74), Main (Dennis 56)
Subs Not Used: Lyness, Millar, Reid, Erwin

Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Bassey, Barisic, Kamara, Aribo, Hagi (Sakala 68), Wright, Kent (Arfield 68), Morelos
Subs Not Used: McLaughlin, Simpson, Patterson, Davis, Bacuna

Referee: Steven McLean
Assistant Referee: Alan Mulvanny
Assistant Referee: Graham McNeillie
Fourth Official: Colin Steven

Saints travel to Ibrox to face Rangers on Boxing Day in our final match of 2021. 

Jim Goodwin's men close out the year with a visit to the league leaders on the back of a 0-0 draw with second-place Celtic at the SMiSA Stadium on Wednesday night.

Rangers sit atop the cinch Premiership with Giovanni Van Bronckhorst's side having won their last seven league matches. 

Match Details

Rangers v St Mirren
Competition: cinch Premiership
Date: Sunday 26th December 2021
Kick-off: 3pm
Venue: Ibrox 

Match Info

With crowds now reduced to 500 by the Scottish Government, Saints fans will not be able to attend Sunday's match. The St Mirren ticket office will be open on Monday to process refunds. 

PPV will be available from Rangers for £9.99 at this link.

Previous

Saints were edged out by Rangers when the sides met at the SMiSA Stadium in October. A screamer from Connor Ronan gave the Buddies an early lead, but quickfire goals from Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos gave the Ibrox side the points. 

Saints were the first domestic side to beat Rangers last season when Jim Goodwin's side defeated the Ibrox side in dramatic fashion in the League Cup. 

With the game appearing to be heading to extra-time, Conor McCarthy popped up deep in injury-time to slam home the winner in a 3-2 victory for the Buddies. 

Rangers were victorious in all three league matches last season - winning 3-0 at Ibrox twice and 2-0 at the SMiSA Stadium.

Connor Ronan celebrates after opening the scoring in our last meeting with Rangers (Image: Allan Picken)

The officials

The referee this weekend is Steven McLean. Alan Mulvanny and Graham McNeillie are the linesmen while Colin Steven is the fourth official. 

Now that the dust has settled on a difficult day for everyone at the club I wanted to write to all of our fans.

Firstly, I wish to apologise for any uncertainty surrounding whether the Celtic fixture would proceed and any inconvenience caused. Everyone at the club was working flat out to try to work through the difficulties caused by COVID infections amongst our employees and I want to thank all of our staff for their unstinting efforts.

Next I must thank Jim Goodwin and his staff for a heroic performance on the pitch and the professional way everyone handled last night in the face of such adversity. I was extremely proud of every single player and I’m sure everyone watching would have been impressed by their application and fitness.

On behalf of the Board I also want to record our disappointment at the situation we found ourselves in throughout yesterday. We understand that rules exist and are essential for the fair conduct of sporting competitions. However in the current pandemic we also feel that there needs to be judicious application of the rules, in this case, to take account of the law and guidance issued by Government around testing and isolation. We do not believe the rigid application of rules, agreed in a different set of circumstances, is appropriate or fair. We had to take the field last night without 11 of our first team squad and a substitutes’ bench where none of the players had played first team football for the club. Indeed the situation would have been worse had we not received negative PCR Test results around 6pm allowing the players in question and their Close Contacts to play. If those tests had been positive we would have been forced to field all of the players listed as substitutes in the starting line-up.

We plan to write to the SPFL to highlight the difficulties we faced and our view of the need for change.

Meantime on behalf of the Directors, I want to wish all of you, staff, players and supporters a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful and Healthy New Year.

The players that went on that field tonight deserve a huge amount of credit. They came out swinging, they were willing to fight and scrap for every single ball and thoroughly deserved the point."

A valiant St Mirren display saw Jim Goodwin's severely depleted side take a point against Celtic. 

Despite missing several players and requesting a postponement from the SPFL, the match went ahead. Saints were without Jak Alnwick, Jamie McGrath, Conor McCarthy, Richard Tait, Connor Ronan, Ethan Erhahon, Alan Power, Ryan Flynn, Kyle McAllister, Kristian Dennis, Lee Erwin and Eamonn Brophy.

17-year-old Kieran Offord made his debut, while 16-year-old Dylan Reid made just his third start for the Buddies. Jay Henderson also made his first appearance since August with Dean Lyness coming in as goalkeeper for his first league appearance since February. 

St Mirren Academy Graduate Kieran Offord made his first-team debut (Image: Allan Picken)

Lyness would probably have been expecting a busy evening against Ange Postecoglou's side and so it would prove to be for the Saints goalie in the opening stages of the match. He made a terrific save to deny Michael Johnston on eight minutes after the Celtic winger evaded a number of challenges as he jinked into the Buddies box. His strike was pushed away by the strong hands of Lyness. 

Four minutes later Lyness brilliantly turned away a long-range Nir Bitton free-kick. The Celtic midfielder fired towards the keeper's right-hand post with the stand-in at full stretch to get a hand on it.

Saints grew in confidence as the half worn on. The Buddies couldn't force home through a ruck of bodies and from the resultant corner Charles Dunne skinned Liel Abada and Tom Rogic before slamming into the side net. 

Celtic had the vast majority of the ball in the second-half but weren't really troubling Lyness in the Saints net. The visitors were restricted to Johnston volleying into the arms of the Saints goalkeeper on 48 minutes while Callum McGregor's curling effort for distance was gathered at the second attempt on 65 minutes. 

Joe Shaughnessy had to clear off the line on 68 minutes, but Saints best chance of the game came less than 60 seconds later on the counter. Henderson broke forward and slipped the ball to Curtis Main who fired low into the arms of Celtic goalkeeper Scott Bain. 

The visitors would go close again with Abada failing to get on to a McGregor ball across the box before substitute Josip Juranovic curled a free-kick just wide. But the Buddies held on to take a share of the spoils heading into Christmas. 

Full-Time: St Mirren 0-0 Celtic

St Mirren: Lyness, Fraser, Shaughnessy (c), Dunne, Millar, Henderson, Reid, Kiltie, Tanser, Offord (McManus 88), Main
Subs Not Used: Urminsky, Taylor, Jack, MacDonald, Kenny

Celtic: Bain, Ralston, Welsh, Carter-Vickers, Scales (Taylor 89), Bitton (Shaw 80), McGregor (c), Johnston, Rogic, Moffat (Juranovic 61), Abada
Subs Not Used: Hazard, McCarthy, Henderson, Montgomery

Referee: David Munro
Assistant Referee: Ralph Gordon
Assistant Referee: Jonathan Bell
Fourth Official: Lloyd Wilson

Attendance: 6,596

The SPFL have announced that the 29th December and 2nd/3rd January cinch Premiership fixture rounds have been postponed to 17th/18th January and 1st/2nd February respectively. The Boxing Day cinch Premiership fixtures will go ahead as planned.

St Mirren were due to face Dundee United at Tannadice on Wednesday 29th December before beginning the year at home to Motherwell on Sunday 2nd January. These fixtures will now take place on Tuesday 18th January and Tuesday 1st February respectively. 

Ticketing arrangements for these matches will be available in due course. 

Dundee United v St Mirren
cinch Premiership
Venue: Tannadice Park
Date: Tuesday 18th January 2022
Kick-Off: 7:45pm 

St Mirren v Motherwell
cinch Premiership
Venue: The SMiSA Stadium
Date: Tuesday 1st February 2022
Kick-Off: 7:45pm 

Tonight's match against Celtic will go ahead.