St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin gives his reaction after his side are narrowly beaten by Kilmarnock at Rugby Park after a late goal.

St Mirren head down to Rugby Park tomorrow to face Kilmarnock on match day 10 of the Ladbrokes Premiership. 

FORM

A 2-0 win over St Johnstone last weekend gave Saints their first league since August and moved Jim Goodwin's side up to ninth place in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

The Buddies have picked up eight points from their nine league matches this season with wins over Aberdeen & St Johnstone and draws against Hamilton and Hearts. 

After a slow start to the season, Kilmarnock have picked up form sitting in fifth place in the league with 14 points.

Angelo Alessio's side are unbeaten in their last three Premiership matches - drawing 0-0 with Ross County at the end of September before winning 1-0 away to Hearts and 2-1 at home against Livingston this month.

PREVIOUS

It was Rugby Park where St Mirren's 2018/19 season began last year in the Betfred Cup.

The Buddies picked up a point after a battling 0-0 draw, before winning the resultant penalty shoot-out to earn a bonus point.

However, Saints were edged out by Kilmarnock in all three league meetings between the two last season.

Saints' first league clash with Kilmarnock last season ended in controversial fashion. Adam Hammill had given St Mirren the lead before Alan Power equalised in the second-half. Aaron Tshibola's winner was questionable as there were doubts as to whether the ball crossed the line, while Simeon Jackson had a goal disallowed for offside as Saints looked for a leveller. 

2-1 was the scoreline when St Mirren went to Rugby Park the last time for league duty. Early goals from Stuart Findlay and Jordan Jones gave the Ayrshire side the points despite Simeon Jackson pulling a goal back. A late Liam Millar goal gave Killie a 1-0 win in March - the last time the two sides met.

The Buddies' last win at Rugby Park came on the final day of the 2012/13 season with John McGinn, Paul McGowan and Conor Newton scoring in a 3-1 victory, while the last win over Kilmarnock was in April 2015 at the Simple Digital Arena as St Mirren ran out 4-1 winners.

TEAM NEWS

Calum Waters is unavailable for selection due to his loan agreement with Kilmarnock.

Ryan Flynn could return to the squad after missing last weekend's win over St Johnstone with an injury, while Kyle McAllister is "touch and go" after missing out in Saints' last two matches with a back injury. Cody Cooke is back in full training, but tomorrow is still likely to be too soon for the English forward. 

Ex-Saint Simeon Jackson could make his Kilmarnock debut tomorrow after signing for the club on a short-term deal earlier this month.

MANAGER'S THOUGHTS

"The away form hasn't been good enough and for as tight and as unwilling as we've been to give anything away at home, we've been giving too many goals away from home. Hopefully we can do something about that at the weekend.

"Another clean sheet would be great and if we can be as creative and as free-flowing in the forward areas as we were in the second-half against St Johnstone then hopefully that will put a stop to that.

"Kilmarnock got off to a slow start there's no getting away from that, but they've certainly picked up some really important results now. 

"I don't think they get the credit they deserve at times. They are a better footballing team than people make out. 

"It's going to make for a very difficult task on Saturday. It's two very organised, hard to beat teams."

Tomorrow afternoon (Saturday 26th October) St Mirren make the trip to Rugby Park for a Ladbrokes Premiership match-up with Kilmarnock.

The info on Travel Clubs heading to Rugby Park for the match is as follows:

Tile Bar Supporters Bus

The bus for Kilmarnock will leave at 1:30pm.

Any remaining bus tickets are on sale from behind the bar.

Chivas Travel Club

The bus to Rugby Park will leave at 1:30pm from the Court Bar.

Non member tickets for the bus are on sale from the pub.

North End Travel Club

The bus to Kilmarnock will leave the Sneddon at 1:00pm.

Bus tickets are now available in the Brewer's Tap, £6 each.

Cockles Wilson Supporters Bus

If you would like to travel on the bus please contact Fraser Burns on Facebook or twitter.

* Students must show a valid matriculation card when purchasing concession tickets..

 Wheelchair/ambulant disabled will be charged at the appropriate price above with the carer getting admission free of charge.

Tickets for this match are on sale from the St Mirren Ticket Office up till 2:00pm on Friday 25th October.

Tickets will be available from 2pm on the day of the game at the Kilmarnock Fitness Centre Reception on Rugby Road (directly behind the away stand).

The St Mirren Ticket Office opening hours in the build up to this match are as follows:

Fri, 25th Oct: 10:00am to 2:00pm
Sat, 26th Oct: CLOSED

Additional Information for Travelling Fans

On Saturday (26th October), St Mirren make the short trip to Ayrshire to face Kilmarnock in a Ladbrokes Premiership match-up at Rugby Park.

The referee on Saturday is William Collum and he will be assisted by David McGeachie and Graham McNeillie. The Fourth Official will be Grant Irvine.

Please note that the drum will be permitted entry as long as Kilmarnock are allowed to search it and it also must be of a size that can be comfortably fitted through a turnstile.

Regarding flags, Kilmarnock allow banners to be fastened to unused blocks of seating, however, they are not permitted entry if on sticks or without proof of a fire retardant label.

We are pleased to announce that we are now offering digital/print at home tickets for matches at the Simple Digital Arena.

The process is straight forward with digital tickets accessed through your smfctickets.co.uk account.

To access digital tickets for home matches, please follow the below instructions. 

Step 1 - Go into your Account tab at the top of the page.

Step 2 - Select the Purchase History tab.

Step 3 -  Select the appropriate Transaction ID for the game you are attending.

Step 4 -  Scroll down and select the view button at the bottom right hand side of the page.

Step 5 -  Select the Download Digital Ticket and your ticket will be shown on the screen.

Step 6 -  Your ticket will look like this. 

Entry with our digital tickets is easy! When entering the stadium you simply put the barcode underneath the turnstile scanner's red illuminated beam and this will allow you entry as it would with a normal paper ticket. 

Please note - anyone who has any issues with digital tickets on match day is urged to contact their nearest steward.

St Mirren Reserves suffered a penalty shoot-out loss against Dundee United in the Reserve Cup this afternoon.

Allan McManus' side hosted United at the St Mirren Training Ground at Ralston and fought back from 2-0 down in the first-half to take the game to penalties. 

But Jamie Walker's sudden death spot-kick was saved by Deniz Mehmet. 

The Buddies came up against a strong United side who named ex-Saint Cammy Smith in their starting 11, along with the likes of Nicky Clark, Matty Smith, Adrian Sporle and Adam King. 

A lacklustre first-half performance saw Saints head into the interval 2-0 down thanks to a double from Matty Smith. 

Allan McManus responded by making three changes at the break with Lewis Jamieson, Matty Grant & Jay Henderson coming on for Josh Jack, Cammy MacPherson and Conor McBrearty. 

The changes paid dividends with Jamieson scoring twice in the space of 11 minutes to draw the Buddies level. Nick McAllister could have won the game late on, but headed wide from close range. 

And so it went to penalties. Scott Glover, Jay Henderson, Finlay Gray, Lewis Jamieson and Matthew Reilly all scored for Saints while Dean Lyness saved a penalty. But misses from Matty Grant and Jamie Walker saw the visitors win the shoot-out.

Up next for Saints in Group C is a trip to the Hibs Training Centre to face Hibernian on Tuesday 3rd December.

St Mirren: Lyness, MacPherson, Walker, Glover, Erhahon, Djorkaeff, McBrearty, Gray, Breadner, Jack
Subs: Law, Girvan, Henderson, Frew, Grant, Jamieson, Reilly

The St Mirren Reserves are in Reserve Cup action this afternoon as they play host Dundee United Reserves at the St Mirren Training Ground at Ralston.

Kick-off takes place at 2pm and entry is FREE so come along and show your support for the Young Buddies.

St Mirren Football Club is excited to announce its partnership with sports analytics firm SciSports.

St Mirren and SciSports will be collaborating in the field of player scouting. With the addition of SciSports’ data intelligence to the scouting department, the club is broadening its options in the recruitment process.

The advanced data models in SciSports’ football intelligence platform Insight will support St Mirren in finding the best suitable players and reducing risk purchases. Next to this, these models make a contribution to mapping potential acquisitions as quickly as possible.

The club will get access to a database with objective and statistically substantiated player insights of more than 90,000 players worldwide.

The collaboration with St Mirren is an example of the steps SciSports is making in the global football landscape. After recent success stories with clubs from other countries including Olympique Lyonnais, Ajax, Wolfsburg and Leeds United among others, SciSports are now entering the Scottish football market.

We are excited about the new partnership and look forward to a fruitful collaboration.

Jakko Slot, Head of Football at SciSports: "It's great that as of now we can say SciSports is active on the highest stage of Scottish football.

"We strongly believe this partnership will support the club in making the right decisions in the field of player acquisition.

"Furthermore, we will have a close look at St. Mirren's performances and are curious about their next-steps for the upcoming period."

Gus MacPherson, Technical Director of St Mirren, said: "We are delighted to be teaming up with SciSports as we look to enhance our recruitment model.

"Working with SciSports will allow us access to a large database of players and help us find new talent from a number of different markets.

"It’s an exciting partnership for both the club and SciSports and we are looking forward to working with them."

SciSports Insight
SciSports’ online platform ‘Insight’ offers applicable insights into more than 90,000 active players, 244 competitions and 3,698 clubs. Advanced data models offer insights into the quality, potential and influence of every player. With the ability to apply easy search filters and -functions, the platform is the ideal partner for the scouting department to operate in an effective and efficient way.

About SciSports
SciSports is one of the fastest growing sports analytics companies in the world and a leading provider of data intelligence for professional football organisations. The European Union named SciSports ‘European Unicorn’ and the HYPE Foundation named the company as the most innovative company in the world of football.

St Mirren FC Charitable Foundation in conjunction with SPFL Trust are delighted to announce they will be hosting a Festive Friends event within the stadium on Christmas Day.

Festive Friends is a wonderful community program created to accommodate elderly people, and those in need, who will be isolated and alone on Christmas Day.

The fun-filled festivities will commence at 12 noon where all of our senior Buddies will be shown into the 1877 lounge, we will have live music & games, some Saint's legends dropping by to share fond memories of St Mirren's history, the provision of a delicious Christmas dinner and a visit from father Christmas & helpers to give all a hand made gift.

St Mirren FC Charitable Foundation wish to invite all of the fans, local community, business partners and friends to nominate individuals they wish to attend the event and nominations are now open, simply email gayle.brannigan@stmirren.com to enter.

To add to the magic and ensure the success of the day we will require small Christmas gifts to be donated and also additional funds to be raised. The more funds we raise and the more gifts we receive the more nominations we can accept.

Should you wish to donate a gift or volunteer as helper or driver on the day please email gayle.brannigan@stmirren.com or call us on 0141-889-2558 ext 6124 and we will provide you with more details.

Jon Obika and Danny Mullen were on the scoresheet as their goals gave St Mirren a 2-0 win over St Johnstone at the Simple Digital Arena on Saturday. 

The forwards notched their first league goals of the season, with Jon grabbing his first in the Black and White of Saints, to give the Saints an important three points and a first league win since August.

Much has been made of the Buddies lack of goals, with Jim Goodwin's side heading into Saturday's match as lowest scorers in the league.

But now both are off the mark, they believe it's time to use Saturday's win as a springboard moving forward.

"This will be the benchmark now," Jon told stmirren.com post-match.

"I feel, especially the forwards, we kind of owe it to the boys because we have been defensively fantastic.

"It's feels good to score and also get the three points which is the main thing. That's what you play for - to help your team and get those goals."

Danny echoed Jon's sentiments saying: "It’s always good to get a goal especially after the start we’ve had. 

"We didn’t start great but we came into the game and when we went ahead we managed the game well and saw it out professionally.

"Overall it was a good day. We’ve scored two goals and we’ll look to keep that up when we go to Kilmarnock."

Obika's opener was a thing of beauty as the English striker acrobatically put Saints in front with an overhead kick on 37 minutes.

"I just felt it stayed in the air for long and I'm just glad I connected with it," he said.

"In training we always practice finishing and the boys had been on fire this week. Again that is the benchmark and we always have to go out and attack."

Both Danny and captain Stephen McGinn, who made his return to the side following an injury to Ryan Flynn, admitted they were happy for Jon to get off the mark, with McGinn praising the quality of both goals and the team's overall performance.

"Jon scored a fantastic goal," the skipper said.

"I'm delighted for him - I thought he was unplayable.

"When we got our noses in front I thought we looked like a really good side.

"I thought the two goals were brilliant," he continued. "Kirk [Broadfoot] does great for Jon and then it's all about the big man's athleticism.

"The second goal is something we work on all the time. Sometimes in training it feels a bit false but when you get it right you can see how good it can work."