The ever-popular Community Football Centres started on a new timetable last week and in the upcoming week St Mirren FC will be giving away vouchers for one FREE adult ticket and one FREE child ticket for Saints’ Ladbrokes Championship match against Queen of the South at the Paisley 2021 Stadium on Saturday 10th September.

If you attend one of the Community Football Centres this coming week you will get the voucher which you can redeem for the match tickets. So don’t delay, get along to one of our Community Football Centres and take part to claim your prize.

The timetable for the Community Football Centres is as follows:

St Mirren manager Alex Rae was relieved to see his side make it to the last 16 of the IRN-BRU Cup this afternoon having fought back from a two goal deficit against Albion Rovers in Coatbridge. He said after the match:

“We’re just pleased to be in the next round. The positives are we have got Rocco [Quinn] some minutes and Gary [MacKenzie] some minutes and we had an opportunity to look at one or two things and we’ll assess over the next couple of days, when we watch the footage again, what we can take from it.”

Saints found themselves behind early and the manager is looking for better from his players. He said:

“The fact of the matter is if you defend like that it leaves a lot to be desired. We need to do so much better. I’m not wanting to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes, it is nowhere near what we are looking for.

“It [the return of Quinn and MacKenzie making his debut] gives us options as obviously we are a wee bit short on the ground but we need to dig in because we are playing through a patch just now that is becoming difficult.”

Under-20 player Andrew McDonald had his first outing as a first team player. Alex said of McDonald:

“We wanted to have a look at him as he done well through the week with the reserves [under-20 side] and it gave us an opportunity to see him.”

With the game going to extra-time it was a long debut outing for MacKenzie who also played through the week. Alex said:

“He played 75 minutes in the reserves the other day, we thought we may well have got it done by 90 minutes but obviously had to play another 30 which wasn’t ideal because it runs the risk of injury but it’s in the bank now and so that is a positive.”

St Mirren booked their place in the fourth round of the IRN-BRU Cup after a hard fought extra-time win over Albion Rovers. Saints found themselves 2-0 down early on but showed good resilience to score three goals in eight minutes to take the lead. However, Albion equalised moments later to level the scores at 3-3 going into the half-time break. A drab second half followed before Lawrence Shankland headed home to seal a 4-3 win for the Buddies. Saints were well worthy of the win as they controlled the game for the most part and will be pleased to have their name in the hat for the fourth round.

St Mirren started the game fairly well, winning a corner early on but found themselves one behind with just eight minutes on the clock when Ross Dunlop scored. A corner kick that was put into the Saints box was punched by Jamie Langfield, though the goalkeeper didn’t get enough contact on it and it fell to Dunlop who controlled the ball before belting it into the St Mirren net. It was a disappointing start that was only going to get worse when the other Dunlop, captain Michael, added his name to the scoresheet. Another corner was Saints undoing as the ball was swung deep into the box where Dunlop rose above the Saints defenders to bullet Albion into a 2-0 lead.

It was surreal stuff for St Mirren, to be two down with only 15 minutes on the clock and the pitch wasn’t helping as any time the ball was sprayed across the pitch it was bobbling. That was no excuse for the Saints and they know they were staring down the barrel of a cup upset in a competition that they made it to the semi-final stage of last season. Langfield had to be on alert when Ryan Wallace tried to catch the experienced goalkeeper out at his near post from a free kick but it was easily gathered.

Lewis Morgan gave St Mirren a lifeline when he smashed home on the half hour mark. It was a great effort from the youngster who has really made a mark on the first team this season, as he cut in from the right side and thumped the ball beyond Stewart from the edge of the box.

Saints started to get a grip on the game at this point as they controlled the play and were level a mere 5 minutes later through a stunning strike from Stephen Mallan. The 20 year-old, who scored 14 goals last season, went close two minutes before opening his account for the season with a long range shot that was pushed wide by Stewart. When Mallan did get his goal it could only be described as an absolute screamer. He picked the ball up in the centre of the park and leathered it, low and hard, into the left hand corner of the net leaving Stewart with no chance.

Saints were in full flow and the comeback was complete just 3 minutes later when John Sutton bulleted a header to send the travelling supporters into raptures. The striker leaped above his marker to power home Tom Walsh’s cross and put St Mirren ahead in dramatic fashion.

However, the ecstasy of coming from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 was short-lived when Ross Dunlop scored his second for Albion to level the scores just a minute later. It was a frustrating moment after having fought hard to complete the comeback. Dunlop found himself with time and space in the box and turned before firing the ball beyond Langfield to keep the drama going heading into half-time.

Half-Time: Albion Rovers 3-3 St Mirren

The second half had a lot to live up to after a blistering first half but it was a drab encounter after the break with neither side able to find the goal that would avoid going another 30 minutes for extra time. The half began with a half-time substitution for St Mirren, with youth prospect Andrew McDonald making his first team debut in place of Jordan Stewart.

Ryan Wallace, who was proving to be one of Albion’s trickier players, went close twice. Firstly with a free kick which went over the bar before an effort from outside the box which Langfield did well to tip the ball away from goal.

Saints were pushing for a winner and both Sutton and Morgan went close – the former with a header that went just wide and the latter having a shot from inside the box blocked by the Albion defence.

There was a huge cheer on the 76th minute with the emergence of Rocco Quinn who was making his comeback after a long injury lay-off had kept him out. Quinn showed his qualities when coming on with great composure on the ball and calming everything down.

There was no goal to be found before the 90th minute despite both teams going close in the closing moments and the game went into extra time.

End of 90 minutes: Albion Rovers 3-3 St Mirren

Saints were dealt a huge let off when Albion player/manager Darren Young blasted over the bar in the 96th minute. The manager, playing in midfield, was teed up in acres of space in the box but smashed the ball over the bar to the relief of the Saints defence. It was a huge chance for Albion who would rue missing that opportunity a few minutes later when Lawrence Shankland scored what turned out to be the game’s winning goal. The striker showed his attacking instincts as he was on hand to head into the net after strike partner Sutton’s deflected shot fell into his path.

Shankland’s day wasn’t done though as he picked up a booking just before the end of the first half of extra-time after a tangle with Albion’s Mark Ferry who received a second yellow and was sent off.

Both sides had half chances in the second half of extra-time – Saints to wrap up the win, Albion to take the game to penalties – but neither side could convert and it’s St Mirren whose name will be in the hat for the fourth round draw on Tuesday.

After Extra-Time: Albion Rovers 3-4 St Mirren

Albion Rovers: Stewart, Reid, Turnbull, M. Dunlop, R. Dunlop, Ferry, Fisher, Willis, Wallace (Gilmour 79), Stewart, McBride (Young 53).
Subs Not Used: Lightbody, Johnston, O’Kane, McManus, Potts (GK).

St Mirren: Langfield, Irvine, MacKenzie, Webster, Stewart (McDonald 46), Morgan, Hutton (Quinn 76), Mallan, Walsh, Sutton, Clarkson (Shankland 53).
Subs Not Used: Naismith, Baird, O’Keefe, Gallacher (GK).

Referee: Mike Roncone.
Assistant Referee: Alan Mulvanny.
Assistant Referee: Ivan Stankovic.

Attendance: 711.

Match report pictures by Allan Picken – © Allan Picken Photography.

Match Gallery Pictures © John Millar.

Street Stuff runs sessions on Monday to Saturday evenings providing young people aged between 10 and 18 with a range of FREE activities including Street Football with coaches from St Mirren Football Club and The Box multi-purpose activity space among others.

The Street Stuff programme also offers dance sessions which are now part of the programme timetable.

Click here to see the new timetable

St Mirren and Albion Rovers face each other competitively for the first time in 36 years tomorrow afternoon as they meet in the 3rd Round of the IRN-BRU Cup at the Exsel Group Stadium.

The Coatbridge side are managed by former Aberdeen midfielder Darren Young. He left Aberdeen in 2003 to join Dunfermline where he spent five years before signing for Dundee. Spells followed with Queen of the South, Morton and Alloa before taking over as player manager at Albion Rovers in the summer of 2014.

Young steered the Wee Rovers to the League Two Championship in his first season in charge and saw his side hold their own in League One last season having fell a couple of points short of making the promotion playoffs.

At the ripe old age of 37 Young still pulls the boots on although he has only made one appearance so far this season, in the previous round of the IRN-BRU Cup when Rovers knocked out Hamilton Academical Under-20 side

The side from Coatbridge have not had the best of starts to the season. After being eliminated from the Betfred Cup with three draws and a loss, the league campaign started with a 2-2 draw away to East Fife then a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Brechin City. A victory came in Round 2 of the IRN-BRU Cup that was followed by an impressive comeback up at Peterhead earning a share of the points after being down two-nil. Last weekend they lost 4-0 to high-flying Alloa Athletic.

St Mirren had a fight back of their own last week as a last minute equaliser from Tom Walsh countered Jamie Adams’ early opener for Ayr United.

The Buddies and the Wee Rovers last faced each other a couple of years ago in a pre-season friendly but the last competitive match-up was on 30th August 1980 when Saints won 5-0 at Love Street in the second leg of a League Cup tie, having won 2-1 through at Coatbridge in the first leg.

Cup ties are usually exciting and going on good cup runs can be pretty special but both sides will no doubt take tomorrow’s break from league football as a chance to loosen up from the pressures of their leagues and see it as an opportunity to try and find a bit of form before they get back to the bread and butter of league football again next weekend.

This coming Saturday (3rd September), St Mirren head to Coatbridge to face Albion Rovers in the 3rd Round of the IRN-BRU Cup at The Exsel Group Stadium.

We are now looking for information on supporters’ buses which will be going to The Exsel Group Stadium for the match.

If you wish to have your bus included on the list please send your info to norrie.jamieson@stmirren.com and we’ll make sure it gets online!


Chivas Travel Club

The bus for the cup tie at Albion Rovers will leave the Court Bar at 2:00pm.

Bus tickets are on sale from behind the bar.

Please note that we will be sharing the bus with the North End Club for this match.

North End Travel Club

We are sharing a bus with the Chivas Club for the Albion Rovers game.

The bus will leave the Court Bar at 2:00pm.

We have a few seats remaining, all seats £6 each.

Will the members who have not already done so please let us know if they are going to this match.

Cockles Wilson Supporters Bus

We are not running a bus to the Albion Rovers game.

Tile Bar Supporters Bus

We are not running a bus to this match.

Our next home match is on Saturday 10th September 2016 when Queen of the South come to visit in the SPFL Ladbrokes Championship.

Corporate Hospitality bookings can be made for this Category C match with prices from as little as £70 per person (season ticket holders - £85 for non season ticket holders) for an inclusive drinks package, a three course meail, half time tea and snacks and an executive seat in the main stand for the match.

To find out more or to book your place please click here

The Under-20 side surged to the the top of the SPFL Development League on Tuesday evening with a convincing 5-2 victory against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at the Paisley 2021 Stadium.

The young Buddies came out the traps quickly and were a goal in front after 7 minutes when Lewis McLear forced the ball past Caley Thistle keeper Daniel Hoban. Four minutes later the lead was doubled when a great move ended with Kyle McAllister putting Saints two-up.

Saints went three-up on 22 minutes as Kalvin Orsi got on the scoresheet but ten minutes later the visitors hit two goals in the space of two minutes as Ali Sutherland netted first for Caley Thistle then Lonsana Doumbouya pulled another back from the penalty-spot ninety seconds later.

Four minutes before the half-time break Saints gave themselves a bit of breathing space again as Conor O’Keefe fired his shot past Hoban from ten yards out.

It took until 85 minutes for St Mirren to restore their three goal advantage when Lewis McLear netted for the second time in the match.

St Mirren: Langfield, McNaughton, Stewart, Magennis, Gordon, MacKenzie (Fawkes 78), McAllister (McDonald 46), Whyte, Orsi (Flanagan 67), McLear, O’Keefe.
Unused Substitutes: Barclay, McKendry, Johnston, Willison (GK).

Match report pictures © John Millar.

A statement from JD on the release of the new home kit.

Due to a number of circumstances during transportation beyond our control we are yet to receive the delivery of retail stock, causing a delay in the launch of the St Mirren kits.

We have been in constant communication with the supplier in a bid to resolve the situation and are confirming delivery over the coming days in order to launch on Thursday 8th September.

JD understand the frustration this delay has caused the fans and the club, as a gesture of goodwill JD will be funding a £10 reduction on all adult and junior shirts.

JD will also be hosting a launch event at the Paisley store on Thursday 8th September 5-6pm where fans will be able to meet first team players to get autographs and photos in the new kit.

UEFA Grassroots Week will take place during the 10th to the 17th September in conjunction with the European Commission to encourage physical activity and healthy lifestyles.

To celebrate UEFA Grassroots week the Scottish FA West Region will be having a number of events and have linked with St Mirren FC to provide a number of events during the week.

Club Inservice
The Scottish FA and St Mirren FC will hold a club in-service to demonstrate the work of both partners in terms of the community activity to help support healthy lifestyles through to the development of players within the academy. The night will involve the following:

• Presentation on the development of regional grassroots activity within the Scottish FA West Region.
• Presentation from St Mirren FC on their involvement within the local community to promote the sport.
• Presentation from Head of Youth Allan McManus on the work of the academy.
• Practical demonstrations showcasing the different elements of the clubs and work they do within the academy.

The is a FREE event and if you wish to sign up for this event please e-mail West@scottishfa.co.uk with your name, address, club name and a contact number.