A strong start to the season has seen St Mirren overcoming a relatively disappointing 2022/23 season, coming into a hectic Christmas period in third place in the league. The Buddies are in the perfect position to make the most of their start to the season as they face bottom-of-the-table Livingston, who are in desperate need of putting together some results to avoid relegation come the end of the season. Find out more about both sides’ form, what we can expect to see from a fairly poor Livingston side and our predictions for the match.
St Mirren and Livingston’s Form So Far
Whilst the home side might be in third place in the Scottish Premiership at the moment, they’ve been a far cry from comfortable in the league recently. Only one win in the last seven matches in all competitions isn’t the strongest start, with that being a 4-0 pummelling delivered to a St.Johnstone side that didn’t look up for the challenge. Results aren’t everything, however, with an early red card against Rangers setting a poor tone for a 3-0 loss prior to a hard-fought battle with Celtic that saw the Paisley side fall to an 83rd minute winner.
Livingston have been having an equally horrible time of it recently. David Martindale’s side have only won once since the start of September, and are currently on a five-match losing streak with only one goal scored. The Tony Macaroni Arena is not the happiest place right now, and a single victory on the road isn’t likely to give the players, or indeed the fans, any real reason to hope for a positive result.
Livingston Tactical Preview
For a team that are going through such a downturn, Livingston can offer quite a bit of threat going forwards. Wide and aggressive football is the name of the game, with the side pinging long balls to their wingers to try and force an opportunity on the break. Defending solidly and avoiding turnovers will be key to getting a strong result against a team that are something of an unknown threat for stronger sides.
Martindale’s tactics are similarly aggressive when it comes to defending. A fast and agile press means that switching off for a second could mean losing the ball, so an attentive midfield with a focus on ball retention is a must to beat the table’s bottom side. Whilst The Saints also like to play on the counter, letting the game become too transitional and end-to-end risks something of a lottery where the Lions can get lucky and score a goal against the run of play.
St Mirren Injury Concerns
There are no serious injury concerns for the St Mirren squad at the moment outside of Jonah Ayunga (pictured). After coming off due to a collision with a Motherwell defender in January, Ayunga is now in the late stages of rehab from an ACL injury that needed to be surgically repaired in March. Whilst it doesn’t look like Ayunga will be fit and ready for this game, he will almost certainly have a significant role to play in the latter stages of the season.
St Mirren Predicted Lineup vs Livingston
Zach Hemming starts in net behind a back three of Marcus Fraser, Alex Gogic and Richard Taylor, all providing both defensive support and creative balls out to the wing-backs, Ryan Strain and Scott Tanser. Keanu Baccus and Mark O’Hara bring some structure to the centre of midfield and look to create as many chances as possible for a front line that sees Conor McMenamin and Greg Kiltie flanking club top scorer Mikael Mandron in the middle.
St Mirren vs Livingston Predictions and Odds
The bookmaker apps seem right on the money with this fixture having St Mirren as clear favourites at 4/6 in comparison to Livingston’s relatively distant 4/1 with the current bet365 bonus code offer. The biggest risk to the home side is complacency, as letting the match devolve into the way the visitors want to play will lead to threat after threat that could put the final result in jeopardy.