The Panda Express is back!

After a successful first outing the family supporters bus will be returning for our crucial away match against Motherwell on Saturday 4th May.

Tickets are priced at £5 per person and will include a drink and crisps.

The bus departs the stadium at 1:45pm.

To book please contact colin.bright@stmirren.com. 

Tony Fitzpatrick paid tribute to Billy McNeill following the passing of the Scottish football legend last night. 

McNeill played 790 times for Celtic between 1957 & 1975 - captaining the side to their European Cup triumph in 1967 - and was also capped 29 times for Scotland.

After hanging up his boots, McNeill managed Clyde, Aberdeen, Celtic (twice), Manchester City and Aston Villa.

Saints chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick knew McNeill well and paid tribute to the man known as 'Cesar'. 

Tony said: "I have incredible memories of Billy and I'm so proud to say he tried to sign me as a player. As a man he was an absolute gentleman and a great leader of men. I was in his company quite a lot and he really was an incredible man.

"Even though we knew he was unwell you think guys like Billy McNeill are immortal. It's a huge shock to your system when you hear news like this.

"We've had incredible players over the years in Scottish football such as Kenny Dalglish, David Cooper etc. But I think Billy, along with Sir Alex Ferguson, is the biggest name ever in Scottish football. Billy McNeill is a name that everybody will remember forever. He was a proper gentleman and everything you wanted in a hero. 

"I know every director, the players, the staff and supporters would pass on our wishes to Billy's family. It's such a sad loss."

The St Mirren Reserves are in SPFL Reserve League action as they travel through to the capital to face Hearts at the Oriam this afternoon.

Kick-off takes place at 2pm.

To find out more about the SPFL Reserve League please click here.

St Mirren picked up a huge three points after a brilliant 3-1 win over Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena this afternoon. 

Saints had to come from behind to defeat 10-man Livingston to extend the gap over Dundee at the bottom to six points and move to within two of Hamilton Accies.

The home side started brightly with Keaghan Jacobs and Scott Robinson sending efforts just wide inside the opening 10 minutes.

But they were dealt a major blow on 17 minutes when Craig Halkett was shown a straight red card after he was adjudged to have denied a goalscoring opportunity. The Livi captain caught Brad Lyons as he the Northern Irishman charged through on goal and referee William Collum showed no hesitation in pulling out the red card.

Despite that setback, it was the 10 men who took the lead on 20 minutes. To Livi's credit it was a well worked goal which finished with Scott Robinson on hand to tap home a cutback from Steven Lawless.

While it was frustrating for Saints, the Buddies found themselves level just six minutes later. Anders Dreyer fed the ball to Paul McGinn out on the right and the full-back charged into the box, finishing from a tight angle to make it 1-1.

Both sides had chances before half-time with Ryan Flynn making an incredible clearance to deny Scott Pittman a tap-in, while Danny Mullen shot straight at Kelly from the edge of the box after a neat interplay with Dreyer.

Oran Kearney made an attacking substitution at the break with Simeon Jackson coming on to replace Gary MacKenzie. And the Buddies were right at Livingston from the get go. Mullen rose the highest to meet a Paul McGinn cross just a minute after the interval but Kelly was equal to the header.

Just five minutes after coming on Jackson had a chance to put Saints ahead after being found in space inside the box. Dreyer slipped the ball through to the striker but Kelly beat away the shot.

Mullen almost had us in front near the hour mark but for a vital block from Hakeem Odoffin. Mihai Popescu's lovely through ball found Jackson who broke into the box and played it across the box for Mullen whose first time flick was sent over by the leg of the Livi defender.

Saints were having the majority of the pressure but couldn't find a way through. Kyle McAllister and Kyle Magennis were both introduced in place of Brad Lyons and Ethan Erhahon. The substitutions paid dividends with Magennis almost scoring just after coming on. His one-two with Dreyer found him in on goal but Kelly blocked the attempt.

However, it was from that passage of play that Saints would find themselves in front. Livingston couldn't clear their lines after Kelly's save allowing Stephen McGinn to put the ball into the box where it broke nicely to Mullen who, with his back to goal, turned and unleashed a powerful effort into the left corner to send the away stand into raptures.

The scenes only intensified as the Buddies added a third less than two minutes later. Kyle McAllister drove on and unleashed a shot from range down the throat of Kelly. The keeper couldn't hold it with Jackson was on hand to knock it into the net from close range to earn Saints a valuable three points.

Full Time: Livingston 1-3 St Mirren 

St Mirren: Hladky, P.McGinn, Baird, MacKenzie (Jackson 45), Popescu, Erhahon (Magennis 76), S. McGinn (c), Flynn, Lyons (McAllister 63), Dreyer, Mullen
Subs Not Used: Holmes, Muzek, Hodson, Ferdinand

Livingston: Kelly, Lithgow, Halkett, Gallagher, Jacobs, Lawson, Pittman, Sibbald (Lamie 52), Robinson, Lawless (Odoffin 23), Hardie (Menga 73)
Subs Not Used: Stewart, Byrne, Tiffoney, De Vita

Referee: William Collum
Assistant Referee: Alan Mulvanny
Assistant Referee: Stuart Hodge
Fourth Official: Gavin Duncan

Attendance: 2,347

Gallery pictures by Allan Picken © - Allan Picken Photography

Saints manager Oran Kearney reflects on a good afternoon for his side as the Buddies defeated Livingston 3-1 at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

St Mirren travel through to West Lothian on Saturday to face Gary Holt's Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena. 

It's the first match following the league split with 11th placed Saints looking to preserve their Ladbrokes Premiership status with five matches remaining.

FORM

St Mirren - DLWLLW

Livingston - DWLDWL

After a break last weekend, the Buddies come into this match on the back of a 1-1 draw away to Hamilton on match day 32. 

Saints fell behind to Accies on 63 minutes, but responded quickly with Anders Dreyer netting the equaliser three minutes later to grab us a share of the spoils. 

The Buddies' last win came over Dundee at the Simple Digital Arena at the end of March when we defeated Dundee 2-1. 

Livingston, meanwhile, picked up a point in their last match after a 0-0 draw against Celtic at Celtic Park.

They were victorious in their last home match with goals from Ryan Hardie and Craig Halkett giving them a 2-0 win over Hamilton.

The Lions have been in impressive form at home this season. Gary Holt's side have won a third of their Ladbrokes Premiership matches overall this season with 10 of those 11 wins coming at the Tony Macaroni Arena. 

PREVIOUS

Ryan Flynn scored a last-gasp winner for the Buddies the last time the two sides met. 

The midfielder was on hand to follow up after Simeon Jackson's shot was saved to give St Mirren a 1-0 win over Livi at the Simple Digital Arena in March.

That was Saints' first win over the Lions in three attempts this season having lost both of the previous matches.

Gary Holt first match in charge as Livingston manager came against St Mirren back in August. The Lions came away from Paisley with three points that afternoon with first half goals from Jack Hamilton and Alan Lithgow seeing the visitors win 2-0. 

This will be St Mirren's second visit to Livingston this season having already made the trip to the Tony Macaroni Arena in December. Alfie Jones, now back at Southampton, headed the opener for Saints to give Oran Kearney's men a first half lead. But second half goals from Scott Pittman, Ryan Hardie and Craig Sibbald gave Livingston a 3-1 win.

WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN

St Mirren will be looking for three points to try and close the gap on 10th place Hamilton and keep above bottom side Dundee.

Saints could move to within a point of Accies with a win providing that Hamilton lose at home to Motherwell in the Lanarkshire derby. 

A win could also see the Buddies go six points clear of the bottom if Dundee lose away to St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

Three points for Livingston would keep them in the hunt for a seventh place finish. Just two points separate ninth-placed Lions from seventh-placed St Johnstone.

TEAM NEWS

Danny Rogers and Greg Tansey remain out for the Buddies, while Duckens Nazon will serve the final match of his suspension. 

Kyle Magennis played 45 minutes for the St Mirren Reserves on Monday, but tomorrow's game may come too soon for the 20 year-old. 

WHAT THE GAFFER SAYS

"I don't buy into it when people say a team has nothing to play for. I don't expect Livingston to be any different from the Livingston we have faced this season which has always been a tough task. 

"Preparations have been good. We have done our homework and we'll try our hardest to find a way to win the game. We have players who are comfortable playing on plastic pitches. We've played on it before and we've played on plenty of plastic pitches this season."

Please note that the Stadium, Ticket Office and Club Shop will all be closed this coming Monday (22nd April). 

Anyone wishing to buy tickets will still be able to do so online. 

The Stadium, Ticket Office and Club Shop will all be open as usual on Tuesday.

* Registered disabled fans are entitled to a free carer if required.

Please note that anyone who has ordered a ticket for collection at the St Mirren Ticket Office must collect it by 2:00pm today (Friday 19th April). 

Tickets for this match are on sale from the St Mirren Ticket Office and are also available to purchase through Livingston's ticketing website.

Supporters can choose a seat in Section L of the Nordan East Stand and can have a digital ticket, which can be on their phone or printed at home or choose to have them posted.

Livingston have confirmed that tickets will be available for St Mirren fans at thd match from 12:30pm at the Almondvale Suite which is situated at the South Stand of the stadium.

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

Fri, 19th Apr: 10:00am to 2:00pm
Sat, 20th Apr: CLOSED

Ticket Office Phone No: (0141) 840-6130.
St Mirren Ticket Office E-Mail: tickets@stmirren.com.

Additional Information for Travelling Fans

On Saturday (20th April), St Mirren make the trip to West Lothian to face Livingston in a Ladbrokes Premiership match-up at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

The referee on Saturday is William Collum and he will be assisted by Alan Mulvanny and Stuart Hodge. Fourth Official will be Gavin Duncan.

This week the inspiresport and St Mirren 'Train and Play' programme went full circle as we welcomed Belfast Metropolitan College to the St Mirren Academy for a second time.

Belfast Met were the first group to visit St Mirren with inspiresport back in 2016 and enjoyed their trip so much back then that they decided to visit again.

On their arrival at the academy on Monday they were met by St Mirren chairman Gordon Scott, manager Oran Kearney, captain Stephen McGinn and chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick. They watched the St Mirren Reserves defeat Ross County 3-0 in the SPFL Reserve League before receiving a VIP tour of the Simple Digital Arena with Tony.

On Tuesday they had two high quality training sessions with Academy coach Sam Mawuena and enjoyed a competitive game against an SYFA West region side.

Stephen Small, Football Coordinator for Belfast Metropolitan College, said: "We had such a good visit a couple of years ago to St Mirren that when we were thinking of another tour there was only one place we were going and that was back to St Mirren.

"To have the chairman, manager, captain and chief executive meet you says what a wonderful family club St Mirren are. Sam put on two wonderful sessions and Tony really inspired the students with his tour and passion for the club."

Jed McCabe of inspiresport said: "Having Belfast Metropolitan College return to St Mirren shows we are getting it right and our philosophy is working.

"My job is to get the name of this wonderful club to the world and get as many people as possible to visit. Not just for a one of visit but to return time and again."

Tony Fitzpatrick said: "This is truly humbling to welcome Belfast Metropolitan college back as when we started this programme we were not sure how it would go.

"To have over 500 players and parent’s from different countries visit and now groups coming back for a second time shows we have something special happening."

Yet another group from the Republic of Ireland visited the St Mirren Training Academy at Ralston with over 100 players, coaches and parents from the North Eastern County Schoolgirls League making the journey over to Scotland at the end of March.

They NECSL group received training sessions from the St Mirren Academy coaches and got the chance to watch the Buddies take on Dundee in the Ladbrokes Premiership, while also seeing the St Mirren Women's team in action against Clyde. 

Sam Mawuena, a St Mirren Academy coach who lead the training sessions, said: "It was a pleasure to have the NECSL girls and deliver our methodology as we do in the Academy to them. The feedback from NECSL Girls and other groups who have visited us from Ireland has been fantastic."

On the Sunday afternoon they enjoyed evenly matched games against local teams and received a special visit from St Mirren Women's Head Coach, Kate Cooper. 

Kate said: "It was a privilege to meet and spend time with the players and coaches from NECSL girls.

"Their enthusiasm for the game, desire to learn and ultimately improve and develop was evident throughout their visit. I have no doubt some will go on to have great careers in the game. We also greatly appreciated their support at our match vs Clyde."

As always, a highlight of the tour was the VIP stadium tour delivered by St Mirren Chief Executive, Tony Fitzpatrick.

Speaking on the visit, Tony said: "It was fantastic to have our first all-girls group at the club and it was great that Kate Cooper took time to come down for a chat.

"It shows the club are making a huge impression to boys and girls teams from all over the Republic of Ireland. To have over 100 players, parents and coaches shows how much our good name is spreading which is our main objective."

Jed McCabe of inspiresport, the organisers of the tour, said: "As official partners of Scottish Women’s Football it was great to have our first girls group to St Mirren.

"The group absolutely loved the tour from high quality coaching, stadium tour with Tony Fitzpatrick, quality matches and to top it off, Kate Cooper, the St Mirren Women's team head coach, taking time to have meet the group. This really shows why inspiresport are proud partners of St Mirren."

Karen Byrne from NECSL girls said: "As the lead organiser I was so impressed by the professionalism of inspiresport, in particular Jed and our superb weekend guide Bruce.

"The timetable was well organised and we squeezed as much as possible in to the time we were there. To get a VIP tour of the stadium from a club legend and CEO was very inspiring.

"The most important aspect from us as NECSL coaches was that our team would have an opportunity to spend quality time together and gel as a unit. The trip definitely afforded us with these goals being met for sure.

"We look forward to engaging inspiresport in future tours and have now formed new relationships with St Mirren coaching staff. I am already looking forward to my own personal return in the middle of May to foster a coaching relationship and friendship with Kate Cooper who so generously gave up her time during the weekend."