St Mirren is delighted to announce the appointment of Ali DeFoy as the club’s new Head of Brand Management and Sales.

Ali is a well-known face to supporters having fronted our St Mirren TV coverage this season as our matchday host.

Ali will work closely with our commercial and media departments to develop brand and sponsor opportunities, strengthen our relationships with existing partners and support the growth and development of St Mirren TV.

This appointment is the beginning of investment in a new structure off the field which will enhance business growth, reputation and success. The ambition of the club to grow off field activities to compliment and support the on field activities is key to taking the club to the next level. As the partnership between SMiSA and Kibble continues to develop in the move to fan ownership, ambition will be key to the progress of the club to reach the levels that everyone at the club and its supporters believe are possible.

Ali said: "I’m really excited to be joining the club I have supported since I was a child. I’ve been lucky to have been in and around the club for a long time and I’m delighted to have seen the progress the club has made in the last 12 months, I can’t wait to get started in my new role. This is an opportunity to be part of a club that I love and help achieve the goals the club has."

St Mirren Chief Executive Tony Fitzpatrick said: "We are pleased to welcome Ali to the club. Most will recognise Ali as the face of St Mirren TV on a matchday, but she has a great reputation in this field having previously worked at Carnoustie Golf Links as Head of Marketing and Communications. We look forward to her joining us and bringing her enthusiasm and expertise to the club."

St Mirren will face Inverness Caledonian Thistle at home in the Fourth Round of the Scottish Cup. 

That match is to be played on the weekend of 17th/18th April. More details will be announced in due course.

The winners of that match will then face Kilmarnock or Montrose in the Fifth Round.

(Picture courtesy of Brian Craig)

St Mirren booked their place in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup after a convincing win at Hamilton Academical.

Kristian Dennis netted on his comeback from injury either side of a Jamie McGrath brace with the Irishman taking his tally to 13 for the season.

Jim Goodwin's men were well worthy of their win as they go into the hat for tomorrow's draw.

Saints were utterly dominant in the opening exchanges and took the lead on four minutes thanks to a wonderful McGrath strike. 

The Buddies created a number of chances in the first 20 minutes and really should have been more than one goal to the good. McGrath had a low strike held by Accies goalkeeper Ryan Fulton while Ilkay Durmus flashed a free-kick just by the post along with Obika also dragging a shot wide. Fulton then made a good stop to deny Obika after the striker got on to a delightful defence-splitting pass from Ethan Erhahon.

But Saints were fired a warning sign on 25 minutes when Jak Alnwick was forced into a good save to deny ex-Saint Lee Hodson. The Englishman got two strong hands on the powerful drive from Hodson to push over the bar.  And with that the home side began to grow into the game. Hakeem Odoffin curled wide from 20 yards on 28 minutes, while Ross Callachan had a strike blocked by Joe Shaughnessy three minutes later.

Callachan should have done better four minutes before the interval with a free-kick around 20 yards from goal but the Accies midfielder harmlessly sent into the arms of Alnwick.

The home side really should have been level minutes after the restart when David Moyo was found unmarked in the Saints box. He striker got his head on it only to nod over when he should have got it on target. 

Dennis made his comeback from injury on 63 minutes when he replaced Dylan Connolly. And a little over 10 minutes after his introduction he sealed the win with a lovely strike from around 25 yards. Fulton was at full stretch but he couldn't get near the effort which nestled into the top corner to all but ensure Saints would find themselves in the draw for the fourth round. 

McGrath added the cherry on the cake 11 minutes from time when he netted his eighth penalty of the season after Obika had been fouled. The Irishman was as cool as ever as he rolled home to secure an emphatic win. 

Full-Time: Hamilton Academical 0-3 St Mirren

St Mirren: Alnwick, Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy (c), Connolly (Dennis 63), McGrath, Doyle-Hayes, Erhahon, Durmus (Henderson 85), Obika, Erwin (Flynn 54)
Subs Not Used: Lyness, Tait, Finlayson, Reid, MacPherson, McAllister

Hamilton: Fulton, Hodson, A.Martin, McMann, Easton, Odoffin, Hughes (Munro 78), S.Martin (Hamilton 37), Callachan, Moyo, Anderson
Subs Not Used: Gourlay, Scully, Stirling, Stanger, C.Smith

Referee: Euan Anderson
Assistant Referee: Stuart Stevenson
Assistant Referee: Alan Mulvanny
Fourth Official: David Lowe

St Mirren Football Club are delighted to announce that Director Jim Gillespie will become the Club’s new Vice Chairman.

Jim, Chief Executive of Kibble Group, joined the St Mirren Board of Directors in March 2020 on completion of Kibble purchasing 27.5% shares in the Club. This unique partnership between Kibble and St Mirren, two of Paisley’s largest institutions, will see the club become fan-owned this year.

Jim Gillespie brings with him a wealth of experience at Director level in leadership and business transformation, with comprehensive skills in innovation, and entrepreneurship. Jim is committed to developing and shaping services for the organisations he is involved with. His belief of strong governance underpins these principles and this will be a key focus of Jim’s role as Vice Chairman.

Upon accepting the appointment Jim said: "It is a privilege to take on this position. I know what an important institution St Mirren FC is in the local area and what it means to our loyal fans and local community. The Board are working hard to achieve fan ownership and having the infrastructure in place to continue the progress that has been seen both on and off the field in the last year. This is an exciting time for St Mirren."

St Mirren Chairman Gordon Scott said: "Jim has proved a valuable addition to the Board since joining as a Director in 2020. On behalf of myself and the rest of the Board, we look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role as Vice Chairman as the Club continues along its path to fan ownership and future success."

It's cup football for St Mirren this weekend as Jim Goodwin's men head to Hamilton in the Third Round of the Scottish Cup.

Saints reached the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup last season after defeating Broxburn Athletic and Motherwell in the Fourth and Fifth Rounds respectively. A 2-0 loss to Aberdeen at the SMiSA Stadium saw St Mirren's cup journey come to an end at the last eight stage.

Hamilton defeated Edinburgh City 5-0 in the Fourth Round last season but were knocked out at the Fifth Round stage after losing 4-1 at home to Rangers. 

Match Details

Hamilton Academical v St Mirren
Competition: Scottish Cup
Date: Saturday 3rd April 2021
Kick-off: 3pm
Venue: FOYS Stadium

How to watch the match

Saturday's match will be shown live on PPV for £12. Frank McAvennie will be a guest on Accies TV. Click here to buy your pass now. 

The match is also available in audio form to international subscribers on tv.stmirren.com. 

Previous

St Mirren were the winners when the two sides last met in the Scottish Cup back in 2012. 

A 0-0 draw at the SMiSA Stadium forced a replay. Saints were victorious in the replay at Hamilton with Graham Carey netting the only goal in a 1-0 win.

Saturday sees the two sides meet for the fourth time this season.

Saints have come out on top in one of the previous three fixtures - winning 1-0 at the FOYS Stadium in August. 

The Buddies have drawn 1-1 with Accies in the last two fixtures. Indeed, Hamilton were the last opposition for Saints before the international break with an agonising late goal from Kyle Munro grabbing a share of the spoils for Brian Rice's men at Hamilton. 

Who are the officials?

Euan Anderson is the referee on Saturday. Alan Mulvanny and Stuart Stevenson are the linesmen. The fourth official is David Lowe. 

Kristian Dennis hopes to be back in contention for St Mirren’ Scottish Cup clash against Hamilton Academical a week on Saturday.

It would be a welcome bonus for manager Jim Goodwin who has seen his side also miss forwards Eamonn Brophy and Collin Quaner through injury over the past several weeks. And while that game against Accies could come too soon for the striker, he feels he's not far away from being able to play for the Buddies. 

The Saints forward hasn’t featured since sustaining an achilles injury in our Scottish Premiership match against Hibernian at the start of February.

The 31-year-old has been working hard with physio Kevin Bain and recently began running as he looks to make his return to the fold.

"My recovery is going really well at the minute," he told stmirren.com.

It's been six weeks since I had surgery and the surgeon did say it would be six to 12 weeks that I would be back playing so I'm well within that timescale.

"I'm just getting through running most days and hopefully just getting better day-on-day."

The Englishman has endured a stop-start first season at Saints, but did impress in his short spell in the team - bagging goals in wins over Ross County, Dundee United and Celtic. 

After the disappointment of having a spell on the sidelines, Kristian hopes to be back in the team in the coming weeks to help the side end the season strongly. 

I thought I was doing well," he continued.

"I got the goal at Ross County and then I had to bide my time a few more weeks. At Dundee United I came on and did well. I scored and set one up and got the chance at Parkhead and did well there and we got the win. 

"I was devastated [to get injured]. It was in the Hibs game and I think I did it about 20 minutes into the game. I felt a crunch in my achilles and I should have come off really. I thought I'd try to manage it but when Jak [Alnwick] got sent off I was quite happy my number got put up.

"The aim for me is just to try and get fit and hopefully that will happen over the next 10 days. The next game is Hamilton in the cup and I think we need to aim for another good cup run like we did in the League Cup. I think we can get a good cup run and try to finish seventh and hopefully we can do that."

Following the success of the relaunched Buddie Lager, St Mirren Football Club have partnered with Lerwick Brewery to offer free delivery to Paisley and Glasgow postcodes.

Campbell Kennedy, Commercial Director at St Mirren Football Club, said: "We wanted to thank our fans for continuing to support us from home during the lockdown restrictions. Buddie Lager allows our fans to re-create a little bit of the stadium atmosphere from their sofa, until we can welcome them safely back to the SMiSA stadium."

Free delivery on orders of Buddie Lager will be valid until the end of April 2021 and can be claimed by using code BUDDIE21 when ordering at www.lerwickbrewery.co.uk.

The SPFL has today published the post-split fixture list for the 2020/21 Scottish Premiership season, which resumes next month following the international break and Scottish Cup round three.

Saints will kick-off the post-split fixtures with a visit to Fir Park to face Motherwell on Saturday 10th April. The Buddies will then face a midweek tie away to Ross County on Wednesday 21st April before our first home match against Hamilton Academical on Saturday 1st May. 

Jim Goodwin's men will then face Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on Wednesday 12th May before closing the season on Sunday 16th May against Dundee United at the SMiSA Stadium. 

Post-Split fixtures

Production of commemorative engraved bricks have now resumed. 

Commemorative bricks can be bought online at our e-store.  be ready to be placed on the wall outside the SMiSA Stadium.

You can order a single brick (251mm x 65mm x 20mm) with up to two lines of lettering (15 characters per line, space and punctuation count as characters) or a double brick (215mm x 140mm x 20mm) with up to four lines.

The bricks are available with either black or gold lettering. The lettering is engraved and hand painted with a long-lasting infill.

Each brick comes with its own unique Certificate of Authenticity that you can frame or present as a gift. Confirmation of your order will be posted to you with your unique certificate of authenticity on receipt of your application.

St Mirren suffered late heartbreak as a Hamilton goal at the death snatched a top six place from the Buddies.

Jim Goodwin's side were on course for their first ever top six in the current league setup and a guaranteed highest league finish since 1985 thanks to Jamie McGrath's first-half penalty. But with the game heading to its end Hamilton substitute Kyle Munro headed home an equaliser to secure a point for the hosts and consign Saints to the bottom six.

It was St Mirren who had the better of the opening 45 minutes. Lee Erwin, who had come in for Collin Quaner, had the game's first opportunity when he rose to meet a Richard Tait cross. There were suggestions it came off a hand as it was deflected out for a corner from which Tait nodded wide. 

Erwin started to put the pressure on as the half-hour mark approached. Erwin went close to the opener on 27 minutes when he again was the recipient of a Tait cross, but the forward volleyed into the ground and wide. Two minutes later the ball fell kindly for Jon Obika who turned well but had his strike deflected into Kyle Fulton.

Saints were awarded a penalty on 33 minutes when Ilkay Durmus was fouled after going to get his shot away. McGrath stepped up and, as he had done six times previously this season, made no mistake to slot beyond Fulton. 

The Buddies had opportunities to grab a second and all but seal the win in the second-half. A quick break saw McGrath slip the ball to Obika inside the box with the forward denied by a terrific save from Fulton who touched over the bar on 54 minutes. 

Then, just after the hour mark, Obika outmuscled Aaron Martin to go one-on-one with Fulton. The striker had Durmus in space to his left ready for a tap-in but elected to go alone hitting straight into the arms of Fulton. Durmus was inches away from extending the lead with 10 minutes remaining when his free-kick from 25 yards went just over the bar.

With a little over a minute of normal time to go, St Mirren's top six hopes were crushed when the hosts netted an equaliser. Referee Don Robertson awarded Accies what appeared to be a soft free-kick after Joe Shaughnessy had beaten David Moyo to a header. There was no one marking Munro as he drifted in at the back post to bullet home. 

Full-Time: Hamilton Academical 1-1 St Mirren

JIM GOODWIN POST-MATCH REACTION

St Mirren: Alnwick, Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy (c), Fraser, McGrath, McAllister (Erhahon 56), Doyle-Hayes, Durmus, Erwin (Connolly 56), Obika (Flynn 88)
Subs Not Used: Lyness, Finlayson, Mason, MacPherson, Reid, Henderson

Hamilton Academical: Fulton, Hodson, McMann, Stirling (Moyo 45), Easton, Odoffin, A.Martin (Hughes 63), S.Martin, C.Smith (Munro 80), Callachan, Anderson
Subs Not Used: Gourlay, Scully, Trafford, Stanger, Mimnaugh, Redfern

Referee: Don Robertson
Assistant Referee: David McGeachie
Assistant Referee: Michael Banks
Fourth Official: Colin Steven