Tomorrow afternoon St Mirren head north-east to 'The City of Discovery' and Tannadice Park for their second head to head of the season with Dundee United.
The sides met in Paisley back on 26th August where a brace from Lewis Morgan and a late goal from Ian McShane saw the Buddies run out 3-0 winners in a one-sided contest at the Paisley 2021 Stadium. Since then the Tannadice side have parted company with manager Ray McKinnon and at present are under the temporary charge of former St Mirren defender Laurie Ellis.
This season has been a rollercoaster so far for United who were hot favourites to win this season's Championship back at the beginning of the season. But despite a number of low par performances they are still firmly in contention as they presently sit in fourth spot three points behind leaders St Mirren.
The Tannadice side's performances had been a bit Jekyll and Hyde with the recent defeats against Livingston and Inverness Caledonian Thistle all but sealing McKinnon's fate, but last weekend Laurie Ellis helped United end that two game losing skid when two early goals from Sam Stanton saw the Tannadice side pick up a good three points away to Dumbarton.
St Mirren retained top spot of the Ladbrokes Championship last Saturday afternoon with a 2-2 draw against local rivals Morton at The Paisley 2021 Stadium. A penalty-kick converted by Ian McShane on 66 minutes was countered two minutes later when Andy Murdoch fired a low drive past Craig Samson. Four minutes later Gavin Reilly fired Saints back into the lead when he scored his 11th goal of the season but shortly afterwards former Buddie Gary Harkins scored from the penalty-spot to tie the game up again forcing the sides to settle for a share of the points.
St Mirren and Dundee United both see themselves as sides that should be playing in the top tier and their present league positions suggest that they will be in the promotion mix come the end of the season. The Tannadice side go into tomorrow's game knowing a win will see them pull level with Saints on points but Jack Ross will be reminding his players that a win for Saints will see them strengthen their position at the top of the league and put more distance between themselves and one of their main rivals for the season.
The games between Saints and United usually turn out to be pretty exciting match-ups and with St Mirren fans expecting to travel through in good numbers to Dundee tomorrow they should hopefully see another good outing between two sides who are looking to battle it out at the top.
