St Mirren travel to the Highlands on Saturday to tangle with Ross County, with the Buddies looking to bounce back from a midweek home defeat at the hands of Hibernian.
The home side are now bottom of the Scottish Premiership after a 2-0 defeat away at Celtic on Wednesday evening which was their seventh successive loss in all competitions.
Match preview
The Ross County board finally lost patience with manager Stuart Kettlewell, sacking him after the 2-0 loss to Hamilton Academical last weekend.
John Hughes stepped up to take over in the dugout for the trip to Celtic, but he could do nothing to prevent another 2-0 loss in Glasgow.
The former Hibernian boss has stated that he is relishing the challenge of keeping the Staggies in the Premiership, but he faces a tough test.
County are four points adrift at the bottom of the table and desperately need a win to get them back on track.
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St Mirren's 11-game unbeaten run in all competitions finally came to an end on Wednesday night when they were beaten 1-0 at Easter Road by Hibernian.
Buddies boss Jim Goodwin refused to offer a harsh assessment of his players after the fiery encounter that saw Brandon Mason sent off in the 83rd minute.
Although the Irishman was disappointed by the defeat, he did not feel that there was much between the teams in terms of quality on the night.
The Saints coach is a little concerned that his players are low on energy ahead of the busy festive period, something that he feels may have contributed to the team's bluntness in attack against Hibs.
The team showed some good form in beating St Johnstone 3-2 in Paisley last weekend, and should feel confident facing the Staggies.
One man who is enjoying his football at St Mirren right now is former Newcastle United and Rangers goalkeeper Jak Alnwick.
The Englishman has made 48 saves in his 13 league matches for the Buddies in 2020-21, the fourth-highest in the Premiership, and has kept five clean sheets.
Ross County Scottish Premiership form: DLLLLL
Ross County form (all competitions): LLLLLL
St Mirren Scottish Premiership form: DWDWWL
St Mirren form (all competitions): WDWWWL
Team News
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Charlie Lakin is unavailable for Ross County as he has not recovered from a hamstring injury.
Hughes will be weighing up his options after the defeat to Celtic and may want to begin to put his own stamp on the team in terms of selection.
St Mirren boss Goodwin has almost a full squad from which to pick, with just Mason out suspended.
The Buddies manager admitted that his team looked tired in midweek, though, and may opt to freshen things up a little.
Ross County possible starting lineup:
Laidlaw; Watson, Morris, Iacovitti, Reid; Paton, Draper, Vigurs, Kelly, Gardyne; Stewart
St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Alnwick; Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy, Tait; Connolly, MacPherson, McGrath, Erhahon, Durmus; Obika
We say: Ross County 0-1 St Mirren
Our prediction for this game is that the Buddies will mount a Highland raid and travel back to Paisley with three points, thanks to a hard-working performance and a 1-0 win.
The home side are low on confidence and quality, and the Saints should have too much quality for them to cope with.
Top betting tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a St Mirren win with a probability of 36.46%. A win for Ross County had a probability of 35.59% and a draw had a probability of 28%.
The most likely scoreline for a St Mirren win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.23%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (7.81%) and 0-2 (6.68%). The likeliest Ross County win was 1-0 (11.07%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.15%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 6.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that St Mirren would win this match.
