St Mirren were beaten by Rangers on match day two of the Scottish Premiership.

A Conor McCarthy own-goal gave Rangers a first-half lead before an Alfredo Morelos double rounded off the win for the Ibrox side.

Steven Gerrard's side were on the ascendancy from the off with Ianis Hagi having a good opportunity inside the first five minutes when the ball fell to the Romanian just eight yards from goal. But the forward shot into the ground which took the sting out of it for Jak Alnwick. 

The Saints goalkeeper would have a busy first-half saving a low effort from Morelos on 12 minutes before having to gather an Aribo strike two minutes later. 

Rangers pressure told when they took the lead on 23 minutes. It was unfortunate for defender McCarthy who could do nothing as Morelos' ball across the box cannoned off him and into the Saints net.  

The home side pushed for a second before the interval with Alnwick saving well from James Tavernier twice, while Ryan Kent lashed a fierce shot just by the right-hand post.

Saints started the second-half brightly and may feel aggrieved not to have been awarded a penalty when Jamie McGrath appeared to have been fouled inside the Rangers box. The midfielder's foot was inside the area when he was brought down but referee Andrew Dallas awarded a free-kick. Durmus stepped up to take the free-kick but Gers goalkeeper McLaughlin was level to it.

Rangers doubled their advantage with a little over 20 minutes remaining. Morelos, who had already gone close twice in the second-half, somehow found himself free in the Saints box to head home a corner from the right-hand side. 

Morelos rounded off the win for Rangers when he scored his second and Rangers third on 74 minutes. Borna Barisic burst into the Saints box but had his shot blocked by Alnwick only for it to fall to Morelos two yards from goal to knock home.

Full-Time: Rangers 3-0 St Mirren 

St Mirren: Alnwick, Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy, Tait, McGrath, Foley (Erhahon 85), MacPherson (Jamieson 85), Sheron (Morias 74), Durmus (McAllister 78), Obika (Thorvaldsson 85)
Subs Not Used: Lyness, Baird, Henderson, Jack

Rangers: McLaughlin, Tavernier, Goldson, Balogun, Barisic (Bassey 79), Kamara, Jack (Davis 74), Aribo (Arfield 74), Hagi, Kent (Barker 79), Morelos (Itten 74)
Subs Not Used: Firth, Helander, Patterson, Jones

Referee: Andrew Dallas
Assistant Referee: Douglas Ross
Assistant Referee: Graeme Leslie
Fourth Official: Gavin Duncan

St Mirren travel to Ibrox on Sunday for match day two of the Scottish Premiership.

Jim Goodwin's men got off to a winning start last weekend as Richard Tait's debut goal gave Saints a 1-0 win over Livingston at St Mirren Park on our first competitive match since March.

Sunday's opposition also took three points on the opening day with Ryan Kent scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Pittodrie against Aberdeen.

Rangers come into Sunday's match having lost 1-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Match Details

Rangers v St Mirren
Competition: Scottish Premiership
Kick-off: 3pm
Venue: Ibrox Stadium

Can I watch the match?

International subscribers to St Mirren TV will be able to watch the match at Ibrox with live commentary from Daniel Bowers and Saints legend Mark Yardley. Season ticket holders and UK & Ireland based St Mirren TV subscribers will be able to listen to live audio commentary on St Mirren TV or alternatively they can watch the match on Rangers TV PPV for £9.99.

Last meeting

Rangers edged out Saints by 1-0 on the Buddies last visit to Ibrox back in January. Jermain Defoe's first half goal was enough to give Steven Gerrard's side the win. 

Who are the officials?

Andrew Dallas is referee for Sunday's match with Douglas Ross and Graeme Leslie as the linesmen. Gavin Duncan is the fourth official.

The Saints In That Number initiative will reward the most deserving community-conscious individuals with a St Mirren FC family season ticket for the new Premiership season.

The club is asking Buddies to nominate people who in their view help to make Paisley a better place by their selfless acts.

St Mirren FC will provide the initial tranche of these season tickets for the Paisley heroes, but it also looking for local businesses to get involved with the scheme and donate season tickets.

Already Kibble, the specialist child and youth care charity which in January bought 27.8% of the shares in the club, has committed to taking part by providing tickets.

Several Paisley businesses have jumped at the opportunity to join Saints In That Number including Claymore Contracts Ltd and Scotjet Ltd. However, we’re looking for more to get involved.

St Mirren Chief Executive and club legend Tony Fitzpatrick said: "During these recent challenging times, it’s important that the wider community stands in solidarity to support one another as much as possible.

"St Mirren is first and foremost a community club and we are proud of Paisley and its people. So we are pleased to announce the club will donate the first sets of St Mirren FC family season tickets to outstanding keyworkers, NHS workers and other deserving local heroes who have completed selfless acts.

"But we are also inviting Paisley businesses to get involved in the Saints In That Number initiative. In return for their involvement, they will be able to choose the winner of their ticket from the nominations, or indeed nominate their own 'Saints’'"

Nominations can be made via a contact form on stmirren.com, and businesses looking to take part in the scheme should email their details to commercial@stmirren.com. 

St Mirren Football Club is delighted to announce that Sam Foley and Cammy MacPherson have been named as St Mirren Player and Young Player of the Year respectively. 

Vice captain Sam had a debut season to remember after joining Saints in August 2019 following the expiry of his contract at Northampton Town.

The 33-year-old quickly became a fans favourite after debuting away to Hibernian on the opening day of the 2019/20 season. The midfielder scored twice for Saints including an 88th minute winner at home to Ross County in November. 

St Mirren Academy graduate Cammy MacPherson was a worthy recipient of the Young Player of the Year award after forcing his way into Jim Goodwin's side to become a first-team regular. 

Cammy went on to make 23 appearances for the first team last season scoring a vital winner away to Hamilton in December, whilst also scoring at St Mirren Park against champions Celtic.

Congratulations to both on their well deserved awards!

We'd like to thank our friends at Walker Laird for sponsoring the club's Player of the Year awards for a sixth consecutive year. 

Football returned to Paisley on Saturday as the Saints opened up the 2020/21 season with a win over Livingston at St Mirren Park.

Richard Tait scored the winner on his first St Mirren appearance with fellow debutants Jak Alnwick, Marcus Fraser and Joe Shaughnessy also helping Saints to their first opening day clean sheet since 2011.

The Buddies have won each of their last three opening day matches at St Mirren Park and are undefeated at home in the Scottish Premiership since December.

St Mirren TV launched last week with Saturday’s match the first to take place on the new platform. While the majority of people were able to watch Saturday’s match with no major issues we are aware that some supporters faced some problems with sound in the first half and access to the stream.

We were in constant dialogue with our partners at Stream Digital throughout the match to rectify issues that had arisen and were pleased to have everything fixed for the vast majority of supporters by half-time. We appreciate that these teething problems can be frustrating but thank supporters for their patience and we will continue working with supporters and Stream Digital this week to overcome these challenges.

The club is excited by the developments of the platform with more to look forward to as we develop this medium, thanks must go to the incredible team involved, Ali De Foy for hosting our pre-match show along with Chief Executive Tony Fitzpatrick & captain Kyle Magennis and Daniel Bowers & David Van Zanten for their work on commentary. We’ll have details later in the week on who will be on our show for our upcoming home match against Celtic.

The club were also proud to show its support for Show Racism The Red Card and PFA Scotland’s anti-racist action with players wearing special edition black t-shirts and taking a knee before the match. You can watch Show Racism The Red Card and PFA Scotland’s anti-racist video featuring Jon Obika here.

St Mirren Football Club can confirm that Gus MacPherson has left the club after almost two years as Technical Director.

The 51-year-old managed the club between 2003 and 2010, winning the First Division and Challenge Cup in 2005 and leading us to the League Cup Final in 2010.

In 2018, Gus returned to Saints following the appointment of Oran Kearney as manager to take on the newly created Technical Director role.

St Mirren Chief Executive, Tony Fitzpatrick said: "On behalf of St Mirren Football Club I would like to thank Gus for his service and all the hard work he put in during his time at the club.

"Everyone at St Mirren would like to wish Gus all the best in his future endeavours."

Richard Tait's debut goal secured an opening day win for St Mirren as football returned to St Mirren Park.

The full-back's header was enough for Saints, in competitive action for the first time since a 1-0 win over Hearts in March, to pick up all three points in Paisley.

The win means that the Buddies have won there last three home matches on opening day and extended our unbeaten run at home in the league to six matches.

There was very little of note in the opening stages with it taking until 20 minutes for either side to register any real opportunity with Livingston's Efe Ambrose having an effort from the edge of the area held by Jak Alnwick.

Saints took the lead with their first real opportunity on the half-hour mark. Jamie McGrath swung the most inviting ball into the box allowing Richard Tait, who had ghosted into the box, to bullet home a header from six yards out.

With a little over five minutes of the first-half remaining, Craig Sibbald cracked the Saints post with a powerful hit from range.  

Livingston started the second-half strongly with Alnwick getting the slightest touch on an Alan Forrest effort after the Livi winger had jinxed his way into the Saints box.

Nicky Devlin should have done better for the visitors six minutes later when he stuck a free header from close range over the bar. 

Ambrose had a shot from the edge of the area deflected over with Joe Shaughnessy, a colossus at the back on his Saints debut, clearing the resultant corner. 

Substitute Junior Morias should have wrapped the game up with eight minutes remaining. The forward was unmarked 10 yards from goal as he met an Jon Obika header but he smashed off the post. 

Again Saints could have put the seal on the points when Shaughnessy rose well to meet a pinpoint Cammy MacPherson cross but nodded wide.

Scott Pittman came close to an injury-time equaliser for the visitors with a strike from the edge of the box, but as they had done the whole match, the Saints defence stood up to block to secure a well earned three points and a much deserved clean sheet. 

Full-Time: St Mirren 1-0 Livingston 

St Mirren: Alnwick, Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy, Tait, McGrath, Foley, MacPherson, McAllister (Morias 61), Obika, Durmus (Thorvaldsson 76)
Subs Not Used: Lyness, Urminsky, Baird, Erhahon, Henderson, Jamieson, Jack

Livingston: McCrorie, Devlin, Fitzwater, Taylor-Sinclair (Souda 83), Guthrie, Ambrose, Bartley, Pittman, Sibbald (Robinson 68), Forrest (Kouider-Aissa 61), Dykes
Subs Not Used: Stryjek, Crawford, McMillan, Tiffoney, Hamilton, Pignatiello

Referee: Don Robertson
Assistant Referee: Alan Mulvanny
Assistant Referee: Kylie McMullan
Fourth Official: David Munro

Football returns at long last as St Mirren host Livingston at St Mirren Park in the opening day of the 2020/21 Scottish Premiership season.

Saints will be in action for the first time since our 1-0 win over Hearts in March which secured a ninth-place finish for Jim Goodwin’s side last season.

It’s been a long time and while matches will start behind closed doors, anyone who has bought a season ticket will be given free access to live streams of all home matches while COVID-19 restrictions are in place on our new St Mirren TV platform.

We’ve had a number of test events over the last few days with the final opportunities taking place tonight at 6pm-8pm and tomorrow from 1pm.

Non-season ticket holders based in the UK and Ireland will be able to watch the match via pay-per-view with the price set at £12.50 per match.

International supporters will also be able to tune in if they purchase an international subscription charged at £14.99 per month or £149.99 per year.

Customers who encounter any issues with the streaming platform on Saturday should contact tvsupport@stmirren.com. 

Six players could make their St Mirren debuts tomorrow with Jak Alnwick, Richard Tait, Joe Shaughnessy, Marcus Fraser, Nathan Sheron and Isak Thorvaldsson all having joined Saints in the summer.

The referee for tomorrow’s match is Don Robertson who is assisted by Alan Mulvanny and Kylie McMullan. The fourth official is David Munro.

We would like to remind fans not to turn up to the stadium tomorrow before the match.

St Mirren Football Club is back in action this Saturday as we host Livingston at St Mirren Park for the 2020/21 Scottish Premiership opener.

We have a limited edition run of programmes, published in partnership with Curtis Sport, for the behind closed doors Scottish Premiership fixture played on Saturday 1st August.

This issue is a 32 pager with a £3 cover price.

This latest edition includes the following:

Front Cover – Manager Jim Goodwin.
Jim Goodwin - The St Mirren manager reflects on an unusual close season and looks ahead to the match-up with Livi.
Meet the New Guys - An introduction to some of Jim Goodwin's summer signings.
The Opposition – A look at Gary Holt's Livingston side.
Panda's Fun Page – Some puzzles to keep the youngsters entertained during the half-time break.
St Mirren Programme Archive - Derek Drennan looks back on programmes for Testimonial games of St Mirren players.
Centre Page Poster – A selection of pictures of the squad in pre-season training.
Player Kit Sponsors 2020/21 – Check in to see who is sponsoring your favourite player's shirt for the season.
Marketing Matters – Campbell Kennedy updates on the latest events and happenings at the club's Commercial Department.
Yesterday's Saints – David Cochran looks back on the St Mirren career of winger Ian Scanlon.
Football Bloody Hell - Alan Gallacher gives his slant on football in an era that has been dramatically changed by Covid-19.
St Mirren Fixtures & Results 2020/21 – A handy reference page of all the fixtures and results for this season.
Team Lines – The two squads and match officials for Saturday's match.

To buy this issue or to place your programme subscription for the 2020/21 season click HERE.

Our new platform St Mirren TV will be going live at 6pm today. The platform can be accessed via this link. This will be the new home of St Mirren TV and will include up to date articles, a library of footage and all media St Mirren related.

All season ticket holders will have three months free access to this, all that is required is for you to login (don’t try to register) on the site and your free three months will be activated.

Existing Buddievision members will have their subscription transferred over in the next 24 hours.

Live Streaming Access

We have been working with our streaming partners Stream Digital to develop our streaming access and we are all counting down the days until the game on Saturday.

Our new home matchday experience will be enhanced by our own matchday programme which will be hosted by the lifelong St Mirren fan Ali De Foy along with a host of special guests on each week. For Saturday’s game we will have the club legend and Chief Executive Tony Fitzpatrick and club captain Kyle Magennis joining Ali for pre-match analysis discussion. Post-match we will have our very own League Cup winner David Van Zanten joining Ali for analysis and reaction. David will also be providing commentary throughout the game and analysis at half time.

To access the stream season ticket holders will use their unique ID which will consist of their forename-surname-season ticket number. This is the 12-digit number on your season ticket card.

For example, our managers access would be:

Username: jim-goodwin-012345678910

Password: 012345678910

Please change your password once you have logged in. 

These unique ID’s will be used for every game that is streamed as part of the season ticket package. Each individual season ticket holder will have their own unique log in based on their season ticket details.

The club have been finalising their tests on the system today and from 6pm tonight the site will be live to allow everyone to test their access, this test will remain live until 10pm tomorrow. Please ensure that you take the opportunity to test your access to the site during these opportunities.

We'll have an update tomorrow on how non-season ticket holders can purchase pay-per-view passes via our new St Mirren TV platform. 

You will be able to access the stream on the majority of devices including desktop computers, laptops, Apple iPads and iPhones and Android devices. Unfortunately, games consoles are not supported.

Desktop computers, laptops

You must ensure that your browser is up to date and has JavaScript enabled too (most browsers update automatically). Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Firefox are recommended although other browsers may work.

Apple iPads and iPhones

You must have iOS 11.3 or higher installed and you must use Safari to watch the Live Broadcast on Apple devices.

Android devices

The live broadcast also works on most modern and up to date Android devices, including tablets, smartphones and Smart TVs.

If you require any further specific information, please contact tvsupport@stmirren.com

If you wish to buy a season ticket to stream the Livingston game, the deadline for this to be completed is by close of business on Thursday to allow for your access to be updated to view the game.

Season tickets can still be purchased however it will not be possible to have these included in the access to the Livingston stream thread, access to all subsequent games included in the virtual package will still be available.