Preview: St Mirren vs. St Johnstone - prediction, team news, lineups

St Mirren, fresh from dumping Rangers out of the Scottish League Cup in midweek, welcome St Johnstone to Paisley on Saturday afternoon for what should be an interesting Scottish Premiership clash.

St Johnstone were beaten at home by Livingston in the league last weekend, but enjoyed some League Cup glory of their own in midweek, beating Dunfermline Athletic on penalties to reach the semi-finals.

Match preview

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Jim Goodwin has enjoyed a fine week as St Mirren manager. The Buddies hauled themselves off the bottom of the table with a gritty 1-0 win at Motherwell last weekend, before enjoying some real glory in the League Cup in midweek.

Goodwin's men welcomed the mighty Rangers - unbeaten all season - to Paisley and triumphed 3-2 to secure a spot in the semi-finals of the competition.

No wonder the Irishman celebrated the victory with such gusto, although he was not happy about the red card he received for the excitability of those celebrations.

Centre back Conor McCarthy struck a dramatic last-minute winner to deliver victory to St Mirren, who showed real spirit to defeat the Gers after a late Steven Davis goal looked like putting the game into extra time.

The Buddies are the first Scottish side to beat Rangers for nine months, an impressive achievement that could inject a real boost into their campaign.

The Paisley Saints are now unbeaten in eight games in all competitions and are starting to look like a solid side who can climb the table, as well as perhaps take some unlikely silverware in the League Cup.

Callum Davidson's St Johnstone team had a League Cup triumph of their own to celebrate on Wednesday evening, though the opposition were somewhat less formidable than Rangers.

The Perth Saints overcame Scottish Championship outfit Dunfermline on penalties after their quarter-final tie at East End Park ended 1-1 after extra time.

Davidson admitted after the game that he could not watch the penalty shootout that ended up taking his team to their first semi-final in a cup competition since winning the Scottish Cup in 2014.

The manager now needs to do something about his team's league form. The Perth Saints are down in ninth in the table, one place and two points ahead of Saturday's opponents St Mirren.

The 2-1 defeat at home to Livingston last weekend ended an 11-game unbeaten run in all competitions that had included a 1-1 draw at Celtic the week before.

Davidson will be hoping that St Mirren's cup heroics will have drained more energy from their players' legs than his own team's somewhat laboured win will have done.

St Mirren Scottish Premiership form: LLDWDW St Mirren form (all competitions): WWWDWW

St Johnstone Scottish Premiership form: DWDDDL St Johnstone form (all competitions): DDWDLD

Team News

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St Mirren boss Goodwin has a full squad to choose from with no injuries or suspensions limiting his options.

He may well look to add some less tired legs to the side after all the emotion of that shock win over Rangers.

Callum Davidson likes to rotate his squad so will probably look to freshen up his lineup after Wednesday's marathon encounter.

Michael O'Halloran did not feature in midweek after picking up an injury against Celtic, but he might return on Saturday.

St Mirren possible starting lineup: Alnwick; Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy, Tait; Connolly, McGrath, Doyle-Hayes, Erhahon, Mason; Obika

St Johnstone possible starting lineup: Clark; Kerr, Gordon, McCart; McNamara, Bryson, McCann, Tanser; Wotherspoon, May; Kane

We say: St Mirren 2-0 St Johnstone

Our prediction is that St Mirren will continue their good run with a solid 2-0 victory over their visitors from Perth.

While the Perth Saints are a hard team to beat, they have struggled to win games in recent weeks and we think they will head home from Paisley on the back of a defeat.

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