St Mirren could move to within one point of Ayr United in the Ladbrokes Championship when Dundee United come to the Paisley 2021 Stadium this evening.
Saints cut the gap at the bottom to just four points with a 0-0 draw against Dunfermline on Saturday. Both sides had chances to win it but a point was a fair reflection of the match and with Ayr United losing, the Buddies inched closer to moving off the foot of the table. Meanwhile, Ray McKinnon's Dundee United come into tonight's match on the back of a 1-0 loss at home to league leaders Hibernian on Friday night. The Tangerines saw Lewis Toshney sent off in the first half before falling to a Jason Cummings goal.
Tonight's contest will be the third time that St Mirren have come up against United this season. Jack Ross' first match in charge of the Buddies came in this fixture back in October where goals from Scott Fraser and Tony Andreu secured three points for the visitors.
The sides met again on Christmas Eve in the city of discovery where Saints fell to a 2-1 defeat. John Sutton fired St Mirren ahead on 27 minutes only for United to level a minute later through Fraser. Simon Murray glanced home a header on the stroke of half time to win the match for the Arabs.
You have to go back to 2013 for St Mirren's last league win over United - a 4-1 triumph at the Paisley 2021 Stadium. A double from Steven Thompson was added to goals from John McGinn and Jason Naismith rendering Nadir Ciftci's goal just before half time meaningless.
Tonight's match gives each side a chance to feel each other out ahead of the upcoming IRN-BRU Cup final next week. However, the ultimate goal for St Mirren remains trying to close the gap at the bottom of the Ladbrokes Championship, while United will be looking to leapfrog Morton in third place, after the Greenock side had overtaken McKinnon's side on Saturday.
