St Mirren were beaten in our first match of 2026 as the Buddies fell to a 2-0 defeat to Motherwell at Fir Park.

Tawanda Maswanhise and Elliot Watt scored the goals as the Steelmen ensured all three points would remain in Lanarkshire. 

Saints tried to force the issue early on, winning two corners in quick succession in the opening minutes. Alex Gogic then sent Conor McMenamin on the break, but the attacker didn't have the speed to race away from the tracking Motherwell defender allowing the Steelmen to half clear. The Buddies regained possession with it being eventually worked to Dan Nlundulu who fired over from an angle.

The hosts were seeing more of the ball in the opening stages, but it was Saints who would have the first real opportunity that tested either goalkeeper. Mikael Mandron brought down a Miguel Freckleton pass and laid it off to Nlundulu 20 yards from goal. The forward's curling effort may have taken a slight deflection off Stephen Welsh as Calum Ward tipped wide at full-stretch on 22 minutes.

Shamal George would then be called into action two minutes later. The Saints stopper had to get a strong hand to Lukas Fadinger's long-range hit as he touched it over the bar. George made another big save four minutes later to deny Callum Slattery. The 'Well midfielder drove forward before unleashing a low strike that saw George get down well to push away.

The home side would hit the front with 10 minutes of the first-half remaining as they hit Saints on the counter. Elijah Just sent Tawanda Maswanhise racing clear and he showed composure to slot beyond George to break the deadlock.

Stephen Robinson made two changes at the break with Liam Donnelly and Evan Mooney replacing Richard King and Nlundulu - the latter pair having been booked just before the interval. 

Motherwell doubled their advantage a little over 10 minutes after the restart. The chance looked like it had passed for the hosts, but Maswanhise managed to work the ball to Elliot Watt on the edge of the area and he fired high into the net to make it two. 

The manager made another double substitution on 67 minutes with the introduction of Malik Dijksteel and Roland Idowu in place of Jayden Richardson and Mandron. With 10 minutes to go, our final substitution was made with McMenamin making way for Fraser Taylor. Saints started seeing more of the ball and playing most of the game in the Motherwell half. But the Buddies couldn't fashion any opening that would offer us any route back into the match. 

Full-Time: Motherwell 2-0 St Mirren

St Mirren: George, Fraser (c), King (Donnelly 46), Freckleton, Richardson (Dijksteel 67), Phillips, McMenamin (Taylor 80), Gogic, John, Nlundulu (Mooney 46), Mandron (Idowu 67)
Subs Not Used: Mullen, Sobowale, Tanser, Calvin

Motherwell: Ward, O’Donnell, McGinn (c), Welsh, Longelo, Fadinger, Watt (Priestman 74), Slattery (McAllister 90), Just (Osong 89), Said (Ross 89), Maswanhise (Sparrow 74)
Subs Not Used: Connelly, Gordon, Balmer, Stamatelopoulos

Referee: Calum Scott
AR1: Ross Nelson 
AR2: Scott Anderson
Fourth Official: Connor Ashwood
VAR: Matthew MacDermid

Attendance: 7,  (985 St Mirren supporters)

There are two changes for Saints for our first match of 2026. 

The Buddies face Motherwell at Fir Park in the William Hill Premiership and manager Stephen Robinson has brought Conor McMenamin and Dan Nlundulu into his starting lineup this afternoon. McMenamin replaces Roland Idowu who drops to the bench, while Nlundulu comes in for the injured Jonah Ayunga.

Kick-off at Fir Park is at 3pm. 

St Mirren: George, Fraser (c), King, Freckleton, Richardson, Phillips, McMenamin, Gogic, John, Nlundulu, Mandron
Subs: Mullen, Sobowale, Tanser, Donnelly, Taylor, Idowu, Dijksteel, Calvin, Mooney

Motherwell: Ward, O’Donnell, McGinn (c), Welsh, Longelo, Fadinger, Watt, Slattery, Just, Said, Maswanhise
Subs: Connelly, Gordon, Balmer, Sparrow, Stamatelopoulos, Osong, Priestman, Ross, McAllister

Referee: Calum Scott
VAR: Matthew MacDermid

Tickets for our William Hill Premiership match away to Hearts on Wednesday 14th January will go on sale to season ticket holders only from 10am on Monday 5th January 2026. 

Tickets will be priced at £28 for adults, £20 for O65 & full-time students, £15 for U18s, £8 for U16s and £6 for U13s. 

Full ticket information will be available on stmirren.com on Monday morning.

Hearts v St Mirren
Competition: William Hill Premiership
Date: Wednesday 14th January 2026
Kick-off: 7:45pm
Venue: Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh

Our 2026 begins with a trip to Fir Park in the William Hill Premiership as we take on Motherwell.

Match Details

Motherwell v St Mirren
Competition: William Hill Premiership
Date: Saturday 3rd January 2026
Kick-off: 3pm
Venue: Fir Park

Ticket Info

Saints supporters will be housed in the Upper Tier of the Tommy McLean Stand. Tickets for the match are available to purchase online HERE. 

Tickets are priced at £27 for adults, £21 for concessions, £12 for young adults and £6 for 12 & under. 

Ambulant and carer tickets will be charged at status with carer free of charge. These can be purchased by calling Motherwell on 01698 333 333. Wheelchair and carer tickets are £21 with a carer and can also by purchased by calling 01698 333 333. 

Full ticket information is available HERE.

Supporter Info

Travel and Parking

As always, supporters are encouraged to keep up to date with any relevant travel information via the following link: Traffic Scotland. If travelling by train please check your journey before travel by using the Journey Planner or the ScotRail app.

Minute's Silence

A minute's silence will take place for to pay respects to Motherwell supporters who passed in 2025. The club ask that all supporters respectively observe this. No flags to cover the scoreboard for this reason.

General Info

• Turnstiles will open at 2pm. 
• There will be a search of all supporters before entering the turnstiles.
• All supporters buses to park on the approach road to the Tommy McLean (South Stand) as normal
• The car park on Orbiston Street is for supporters with to park on a first come, first served basis, with plenty of spaces for cars and 5 disabled spaces
• The Cooper Bar will be open to home and away supporters from 12 noon until kick-off, serving food and drink. Please note there's no direct access to the stadium from the bar. 
• Kiosks will accept cash and card
• There will be a charity collection for Les Hoey Dreamaker within the footfall of the stadium.
• Please note that freezing temperatures are forecasted so wrap up well.
• No pyro! Megaphone and frame for flag allowed.
• Flags will be allowed as long as there are no offensive slogans displayed. An area will be made available for display. All flags must meet fire regulations. Please show any flags to the stewards at the search lanes.
• The drum is allowed but will be searched.
• There is no smoking or vaping allowed inside Fir Park. Any breaches of this will result in ejection.

How to Follow

If you can't make the match on Saturday you can follow the action with updates on our X page.

International subscribers to St Mirren TV can watch the match live on tv.stmirren.com as part of their subscription, with live audio coverage for UK based subscribers.

Manager Stephen Robinson today gave an update on the injuries sustained by Jonah Ayunga and Mark O'Hara.

Kenyan forward Ayunga had to be substituted in the first-half of Tuesday's narrow defeat away to Rangers after a hamstring injury, while captain Mark O'Hara missed out on Tuesday completely after picking up an ankle injury in training. 

The pair are both set to be sidelined for a significant period of time with Keanu Baccus still out.

"Jonah's had a scan and it's not good news," the manager told the media this morning.

"He's going to be out for at least a couple of months with a tendon injury. Mark O'Hara will be out the same, probably two or three months, with an ankle injury. 

"He [Jonah] was hitting good form and playing really well. It was quite innocuous, he just pulled up on one of his runs at Ibrox and we had it scanned very quickly. Unfortunately, when there are tendons involved in these injuries you can't take any chances or it ends up being surgery. It will be at least seven or eight weeks and maybe longer.

"Mark has a couple of tears in his ankle ligaments from the incident in training as well so that's a big blow for us in terms of numbers with Keanu being out. 

"It is what it is. We can't change that. We try and make sure people step up."

We begin 2026 with a trip to Motherwell in the William Hill Premiership.

Saints travel to Fir Park on Saturday for our first match of the New Year.

Match Details

Motherwell v St Mirren
Competition: William Hill Premiership
Date: Saturday 3rd January 2026
Kick-off: 3pm 
Venue: Fir Park

Tickets

Saints supporters will be housed in the Upper Tier of the Tommy McLean Stand. Tickets for the match are available to purchase online HERE. 

For full ticket information, please click HERE.

Form

St Mirren slipped to 10th in the William Hill Premiership after a narrow defeat to Rangers at Ibrox on Tuesday night. Mikael Mandron pulled back a late goal for Saints, but it wasn't enough to take anything from our final match of 2025.

The Buddies sit five points clear of 11th placed Kilmarnock and a point behind Dundee in ninth. 

Motherwell are in fourth place in the William Hill Premiership with 33 points from 20 matches and go into Saturday's match on the back of a terrific 2-0 win over Celtic at Fir Park on Tuesday evening. The Steelmen are unbeaten in six at Fir Park, picking up five wins and a draw since losing 2-1 to Falkirk in October. Their last league defeat came at Ibrox last Saturday when they fell to a 1-0 loss.

Saints were victorious when the sides last met. Stephen Robinson's men defeated the Fir Park side 4-1 at Hampden Park in the semi-final of the Premier Sports Cup. Mikael Mandron netted a brace, while Dan Nlundulu and Richard King also got on the scoresheet in the last four tie. 

The only meeting of the sides in league action came in August on matchday two of the 2025/26 William Hill Premiership season. Neither side could be separated as it finished 0-0 at The SMiSA Stadium. It was also stalemate in our last visit to Fir Park in March 2025. Caolan Boyd-Munce and Killian Phillips had us ahead before a double from Callum Slattery saw it finish 2-2.

Mikael Mandron scored twice in our 4-1 win over Motherwell at Hampden Park in November

The Officials

The referee on Saturday is Calum Scott with Matthew MacDermid on VAR duty. 

Everyone at St Mirren Football Club would like to say Happy New Year to all of our supporters and sponsors.

Your support over an historic 2025 was greatly appreciated as we completed a third top six finish in a row and won the Premier Sports Cup.

Thank you. Here's to 2026!

St Mirren were edged out 2-1 by Rangers at Ibrox in our final match of 2025.

Goals from Thelo Aasgaard and Emmanuel Fernandez either side of half-time gave the home side the impetus. Marcus Fraser saw a penalty saved by Jack Butland with less than 15 minutes remaining, though Saints would pull one back through Mikael Mandron to set up a big finish. The Buddies couldn't find an equaliser though and saw their unbeaten December run come to an end.

Stephen Robinson made two changes for Saints with Jayden Richardson and Mandron coming into the starting 11 in place of Conor McMenamin and Dan Nlundulu.

The home side dominated possession in the early proceedings but didn't create anything to trouble Shamal George in the Saints goal. The Buddies carved open the best early opportunity just after 20 minutes when Mandron slipped the ball through for Richardson. His effort was tame and straight at Butland with the offside flag raised in any case.

Rangers came close a few minutes later when Djeidi Gassama got to the byline and cut it back for Nicolas Raskin. The Belgian midfielder slid it inches wide of the far post in what was the best chance to that point. 

Jonah Ayunga won a free-kick in a good area 25 yards from goal, but Declan John sent his effort high and wide just before 30 minutes. Saints were then forced into a first-half change when Ayunga went down injured deep in the Rangers half with just under 10 minutes of the opening 45 remaining. He was replaced by Nlundulu.

The home side broke the deadlock soon after. A short corner saw Jayden Meghoma swing the ball into the box to meet Aasgaard who headed home. Rangers almost added a quickfire second goal with George at full-stretch to push a Mikey Moore volley onto the bar just a minute later. 

The Buddies started the second-half brightly with good running from Roland Idowu seeing the midfielder make his way into the Rangers box and pulling it back for Mandron. The forward got a powerful shot away but was denied by a terrific save from Butland. Nlundulu tried to follow up though couldn't force home before the offside flag was raised.

But despite Saints' early pressure after the break, it was Rangers who would extend their lead on 52 minutes. Youssef Chermiti's cross from the left found Fernandez who slid it low through the legs of George to double the hosts' lead. 

Saints were presented with a big opportunity to reduce the deficit with less than 15 minutes remaining when a VAR check saw us given a penalty for a handball against Fernandez. But the Buddies couldn't convert with Fraser's attempt saved by Butland.

The Buddies would pull a goal back with eight minutes remaining. Miguel Freckleton rose the highest to meet a cross but was denied by another outstanding Butland stop. However, Mandron was on hand to force home on the follow up.

Mikael Mandron's 11th goal of the season wasn't enough to prevent Saints falling to defeat at Ibrox (Image: Craig Brown)

Try as they might, the Saints couldn't find the equaliser and that saw their five match unbeaten run in the month of December come to an end as 2025 drew to a close.

Robinson's men will look to get back to picking up points with a run of four league matches over 11 days starting with a trip to Fir Park to face Motherwell on Saturday.

Full-Time: Rangers 2-1 St Mirren

St Mirren: George, Fraser (c), King, Freckleton, Richardson, Phillips (Donnelly 87), Gogic, Idowu (McMenamin 57), John, Ayunga (Nlundulu 37, Mooney 88), Mandron
Subs: Mullen, Tanser, Sobowale, Taylor, Dijksteel

Rangers: Butland, Tavernier (c), Souttar (Nsiala 79), Fernandez, Meghoma, Raskin, Diomande (Curtis 90), Aasgaard (Barron 69), Moore (Aarons 69), Gassama, Chermiti (Danilo 79)
Subs: Kelly, Dowell, Matondo, Cameron

Referee: Ryan Lee
AR1: Frank Connor
AR2: David Dunne
Fourth Official: Gavin Duncann
VAR: John Beaton

Attendance: 50,526 

Stephen Robinson has named his starting line-up for tonight's William Hill Premiership match against Rangers.

It's the Buddies' final match of 2025 and the manager makes two changes from the side that drew 0-0 with Kilmarnock at The SMiSA Stadium on Saturday. Jayden Richardson and Mikael Mandron come in for Conor McMenamin and Dan Nlundulu.

Captain Mark O'Hara misses out completely after picking up an injury in training yesterday afternoon. That means Tunmise Sobowale comes on to the bench and Marcus Fraser continues with the captain's armband. 

St Mirren: George, Fraser (c), King, Freckleton, Richardson, Phillips, Gogic, Idowu, John, Ayunga, Mandron
Subs: Mullen, Tanser, Sobowale, McMenamin, Taylor, Donnelly, Dijksteel, Mooney, Nlundulu

Rangers: Butland, Tavernier (c), Souttar, Fernandez, Meghoma, Raskin, Diomande, Aasgaard, Moore, Gassama, Chermiti
Subs: Kelly, Nsiala, Aarons, Dowell, Barron, Curtis, Matondo, Cameron, Danilo

Referee: Ryan Lee
VAR: John Beaton

St Mirren Football Club is delighted to confirm that Directors Paul McNeill and Jim Irvine have been named in the New Year Honours. 

The pair, who have been on the Club board as SMiSA representatives since 2022 and 2023 respectively, have been made MBEs (Member of the Order of the British Empire). 

Paul has been recognised for services to Young People with Dyslexia, while Jim has been honoured for services to People Living with Epidermolysis Bullosa. 

St Mirren FC Chairman John Needham said: "On behalf of the club I want to congratulate fellow Directors Paul McNeil and Jim Irvine for the award of their MBEs in the latest New Years Honours List. I know how much selfless time and dedication they’ve shown to dyslexia and EB respectively. We are fortunate to have people of this calibre on our Board."