St Mirren’s run of three home matches in a row comes to an end tomorrow as the Buddies welcome Inverness Caledonian Thistle to the Paisley 2021 Stadium. It’s back to league football for Jack Ross’ side after their exploits in the IRN-BRU Cup last week.
The Buddies bested Hearts Colts 3-1 in the Challenge Cup last Saturday to qualify for the third round of the cup where they will meet League One side Raith Rovers next month. Gavin Reilly, whose performance earned him IRN-BRU’s Golden Balls player of the round, scored twice either side of half-time to put Saints in control before John Sutton grabbed Saints’ third late on after Rory Currie pulled one back for the young Jambos. That win over Hearts Colts saw St Mirren win a fifth home match on the bounce – a new record at the Paisley 2021 Stadium.
Indeed, The Buddies have had a fine start to the season with three wins from four in the Ladbrokes Championship seeing them sit joint second alongside Queen of the South and Dundee United. An opening day win over Falkirk was followed by a disappointing loss against Morton at Cappielow. But since that derby defeat Saints have won all four games they've played, with league wins away to Livingston (3-1) and at home to Dundee United (3-0).
Meanwhile, it's been a tough start to the season for tomorrow's visitors. The Highland club lost their first two league matches, losing 1-0 at home to Dundee United on the opening day, before a 5-1 drubbing away to Dunfermline. They have, however, followed that up with a 1-1 draw at home to Morton and an impressive 4-0 triumph away to newly promoted Brechin City.
They come into tomorrow’s match on the back of a 4-2 win against Aberdeen Colts in the IRN-BRU Cup last weekend. Riccardo Calder gave Inverness an early lead with Liam Polworth and David Raven adding to it to put Caley 3-0 up at half-time. Sebastian Ross pulled a goal back for the Colts five minutes after the break before Carl Tremarco restored the three goal lead with less than 10 minutes to go. Francis Ross of Aberdeen and Charlie Trafford of Inverness saw red towards the end of the match with the young Dons scoring a consolation goal on 89 minutes through Bruce Anderson.
It was a summer of transition for Inverness following their relegation from the Ladbrokes Premiership. The Highland Club parted ways with manager Richie Foran after the drop, replacing him with former manager John Robertson. They also had to contend with losing a number of key players such as Ross Draper, Henri Anier, Alex Fisher, Josh Meekings, Greg Tansey and more. Robertson went about reshaping the squad by bringing in the likes of John Baird from Falkirk, ex-Saints Alex Cooper & Mark Ridgers, Joe Chalmers and Coll Donaldson while a number of players were signed from England and abroad.
Gary Irvine returns from suspension for the Buddies though Harry Davis and Kyle Magennis remain sidelined. Inverness are likely to be without long-terms absentees Aaron Doran and Zak Elbouzedi.
It’s the first meeting of the two since February 2015 where Inverness edged out St Mirren 2-1 at the Paisley 2021 Stadium. Of course, both squads are radically different since that last clash and Saints will likely head into tomorrow’s match as slight favourites despite not having beaten Inverness since January 2013.
It's sure to be an intriguing contest with the Buddies able to go top if results go our way, while tomorrow's opponents will be looking to build on their win over Brechin and start climbing up the table as they aim to make an instant return to the Premiership.
