It's our first home match of 2023 as St Mirren get set to host Hearts at the SMiSA Stadium in cinch Premiership action.

Both sides come into Saturday's match with on five match unbeaten runs.  

St Mirren vs Hearts
cinch Premiership
Venue: The SMiSA Stadium, Paisley
Date: Saturday 7th January 2023
Kick-off: 3pm

The match day officials for Saturday's match against Hearts are as follows:

Referee: Chris Graham
Assistant Referee: David McGeachie
Assistant Referee: Gordon Crawford
Fourth Official: Mike Roncone
VAR: Colin Steven
Assistant VAR: Daniel McFarlane

Match Details

The game kicks-off at 3pm.

There will be a minute's applause prior to kick-off following the sad passing of St Mirren legend Frank McGarvey on New Year's Day. 

Season tickets are valid for Saturday's match. 

The turnstiles will open to supporters from 2pm. The St Mirren Ticket Office is open between 11am until just after kick-off. Please note that tickets for next Friday's (13th Jan) match away to Hearts will not be available to buy at the St Mirren Ticket Office tomorrow. 

The match is all ticket – tickets will be on sale (subject to availability) UNTIL KICK-OFF.  Tickets are on sale at the St Mirren Ticket Office and online at stmirren.com/matchtickets. 

The fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for the home end is online at stmirren.com/matchtickets. Tickets will also be available in the West Stand Ticket booth which will be open from 1:30pm.

Hearts have sold out their allocation of tickets. 

Live Streaming

International subscribers to St Mirren TV can also watch the match live as part of their subscription. UK subscribers to St Mirren TV can listen to live audio coverage.

There will be no PPV available for this match. 

Ticket Information

Ticket Office Phone No: (0141) 840-6130
St Mirren Ticket Office E-Mail: tickets@stmirren.com

Panda Club

Panda Club is open to all kids aged 3-12 years old and costs £5 to attend.

There’s still time to secure a spot for your little one - please complete this REGISTRATION FORM. 

Please note there is still no football available due to the unavailability of facilities. 

The group will be meeting at the SMiSA Wall at the corner of the Tony Fitzpatrick Family Stand. Drop off is anytime between 2:30pm, and pick up will be 5pm, just shortly after the match ends. 

Panda Club will also run at the following pre-split fixtures:

- St Mirren v Motherwell (28th Jan)
- St Mirren v Ross County (18th Feb)
- St Mirren v Livingston (1st Apr)
- St Mirren v Kilmarnock (22nd Apr)

Car Parking

Red Zone - South

For hospitality and home disabled supporters (subject to availability). 

To enter/exit Greenhill Road. Hospitality ticket to be shown for entry. 

Black Zone - Southwest 

For Family Stand and Main Stand Patrons. 

To enter/exit via Drums Avenue.  

White Zone - West 

For West Stand Patrons and Pay on the Day. Home disabled supporters in bays behind West Stand. Away disabled supporters in bays behind the dome. 

To enter/exit via Ferguslie Park Avenue.

Visitor Information

This week the club distributed its latest batch of Help a Buddie match tickets. 

Renfrewshire Council of Alcohol (RCA) were the recipients with some members looking forward to seeing the Saints play Heart of Midlothian in the cinch Premiership this Saturday in our first home match of 2023. 

We visited Margaret, Maria and Rebekah at The RCA Centre in Paisley this week to deliver the tickets for Saturday's match. They were excited to receive the tickets and couldn’t wait to hand them out. 

About the Renfrewshire Council of Alcohol

The Renfrewshire Council of Alcohol is a support centre providing services for people living with addiction in Renfrewshire.

RCA started 45 years ago to give older men who had given up drinking, a social life outside of alcohol. It has grown from its humble beginnings as a small support group, to now supporting both men and women who have been impacted by the effects of alcohol, drugs and gambling.

The RCA receive referrals from NHS but stay true to their original purpose by giving a helping hand and a listening ear to anyone who knocks at their door. The charity is one of only two organisations in Scotland who provide free gambling addiction support. They are no longer bound to the Renfrewshire area and provide support all over Scotland.

The charity allows people to meet others who are in similar situations and provides them with a social life through their support groups. Another example of the charity’s work is helping people who have lost their homes due to addiction become settled again.

RCA have big goals for 2023. They aim to expand and help as many people as they can. They have recently started up one on one support for those who are struggling with gambling and plan to develop this throughout the year.

To find out more about the RCA Trust please visit www.rcatrust.org.uk 

Richard Tait this week helped launch the new SPFL Match Attax collection for season 2022/23, available to buy now.

With all new cards featuring stars of the SPFL 22/23 season to collect, Match Attax returns with a roar as the 100% official and exclusive card collection for the cinch Premiership plus top performers from the cinch Championship.  

The new collection was officially launched at Scotland’s National Stadium Hampden Park this week with the support of players from the cinch Premiership including Saints defender Tait.   

This season’s collection includes 252 base cards to collect, plus special surprise, top secret and mystery packs featuring epic rare cards of your favourite Scottish football stars. 

For the first time ever, super rare UNSTOPPABLE cards are available in 1:96 packs, while the new collection includes some 12 players who have recently returned from competitive international duties in November and December.

Steve Conner, UK Sales Director at Topps, comments: "Following a unique and unbelievably entertaining winter of international football, it has been fabulous to see the full Scottish domestic game back in full action – there is nothing quite like it.

The 2022/23 SPFL Match Attax collection reflects all the excitement, passion and magic of Scottish football and with some new additions including our 'unstoppable' cards we are sure the world’s most successful trading card game will again be a big hit with all ages of Scottish football fans.

"It was fitting that we were able to launch 22/23 SPFL Match Attax with the support of cinch Premiership players at Scotland’s National Stadium, and we hope fans across Scotland have fun collecting their cards and completing their collections." 

The new SPFL Match Attax collection for 22/23 is on sale now in Scottish retailers and via Topps.com - keep your cards safe by purchasing a binder at Topps.com and spend your Christmas money on the best collectibles this New Year.

Follow Match Attax social channels to see SPFL players doing challenges and to find out more about the collection.

We are back at the SMiSA Stadium on Saturday for our first home match of 2023 as St Mirren host Hearts. 

Stephen Robinson's side started the year with a hard-earned point following a 0-0 draw with Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on Monday. Ethan Erhahon's early red card looked like Saints would be up against it, but the Buddies battled well and took a well deserved share of the spoils. 

That draw made it five unbeaten for Saints and kept us in fifth place in the cinch Premiership.

Hearts will be coming into Saturday's match brimming with confidence following a 3-0 win over rivals Hibernian in the Edinburgh derby. Ex-Saint Lawrence Shankland netted twice for the Jambos as they also made it five unbeaten and extended their gap in third to five points over Saints and Aberdeen. 

Robbie Neilson's side have won three and drawn two of their last five heading into Saturday's match. 

Match Details

St Mirren v Hearts
Competition: cinch Premiership
Date: Saturday 7th January 2023
Kick-off: 3pm
Venue: The SMiSA Stadium

Ticket Info

Season tickets are valid for Saturday's match. Non-season ticket holders can buy home end tickets at stmirren.com/matchtickets or at the St Mirren Ticket Office.

Hearts have sold out their allocation of tickets for this match. 

International subscribers to St Mirren TV can watch the match live on tv.stmirren.com as part of their subscription. 

Previous

This will be the first time either side has met this season with the original fixture postponed due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in September. 

Ironically, the two will meet again the following weekend with St Mirren travelling to Tynecastle for that rearranged fixture next Friday (13th Jan). 

The last meeting of the sides was in the Scottish Cup quarter-final in March. Hearts took a 2-0 lead at Tynecastle, but a strike from Eamonn Brophy and our 2021/22 goal of the season from Connor Ronan brought Saints level. Ultimately, Hearts would go on to win 4-2. 

Hearts also won all three league clashes last season winning 2-0 and 2-1 at the SMiSA Stadium and 2-0 again at Tynecastle. 

Saints last victory over the Jambos was in March 2020 when Jon Obika scored the only goal in what proved to be the final day of the 2019/20 season. 

Jon Obika scored the winner the last time Saints defeated Hearts (Image: Kenny Ramsay)

The officials

Chris Graham takes charge of the match on Saturday. His assistants are David McGeachie and Gordon Crawford. Mike Roncone is fourth official. 

Colin Steven is the Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) while Daniel McFarlane is Assistant VAR. 

Tickets for our rearranged cinch Premiership match away to Hearts on Friday 13th January are on sale at the St Mirren Ticket Office. 

Tickets for this match will only on sale at the St Mirren Ticket Office. There will be no sale of tickets online or at Tynecastle. Tickets will not be available to buy on Saturday 7th January prior to our home match against Hearts. 

Please note that these are the same tickets for the fixture that was scheduled in September and therefore the date and kick-off time reflect the original fixture.

Tickets purchased for the original fixture remain valid. 

Hearts v St Mirren 
Competition: cinch Premiership
Date: Friday 13th January 2023
Kick-off: 7:45pm
Venue: Tynecastle Park

Hearts Ticket Info

Adults - £27
Over 65/FTE* - £19
Under 18 - £14
Under 16 - £7
Under 13 - £5

*Full time education. Valid student matriculation card required as proof. 

A limited number of wheelchair and carer pairs are available at the St Mirren Ticket Office. These are priced at £10 for the wheelchair user, with the carer ticket free of charge. 

Ambulant disabled tickets will be charged at the age-appropriate rate. If a carer is required, and proof of this is provided, the carer's ticket will be free of charge.

Tickets for this match are only available at the St Mirren Ticket Office. There will be no sale of tickets at Tynecastle. 

St Mirren Ticket Office Tel: (0141) 840-6130.

St Mirren Ticket Office E-Mail: tickets@stmirren.com.

Stephen Robinson gives his thoughts following our hard-fought point at Kilmarnock.

St Mirren began 2023 with a hard-earned point away to Kilmarnock with Saints having to play over 85 minutes with 10 men following Ethan Erhahon early red card.

Stephen Robinson's men battled throughout the 90 minutes and were well worthy of at least a point that in front of a travelling support of almost 1500 Buddies.

The manager was forced into two changes from the side that started in Wednesday's 1-1 draw at Livingston. Mark O'Hara missed out through suspension, while Jonah Ayunga was ruled out due to a knock. That meant Greg Kiltie and Eamonn Brophy came into the starting eleven. 

Saints were up against it early on with Erhahon shown a straight red card on seven minutes after catching Rory McKenzie on the face with his arm. The manager made a change in response to going down to 10 men with Alex Gogic coming on in place of Brophy. 

Despite playing with a man less the Buddies were coping well and had the first real opportunity of the match with Curtis Main firing wide on 21 minutes after a neat passage of play. 

Trevor Carson was called into action for the first time just before the half hour mark when he made a terrific save to turn Blair Alston's effort round the post. A minute later Saints weren't too far away with Keanu Baccus flashing a volley wide from 20 yards. 

Saints fought away well in the opening 10 minutes of the second 45 with Kilmarnock goalkeeper Sam Walker blocking well with his feet to turn away Ryan Strain's low ball in from the right. A minute later Baccus passed up a big opportunity after being found by Main in the middle of the Killie box, but he got the shot wrong and sclaffed wide. 

The game was very much in the balance and Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes responded by bringing on ex-Saint Jordan Jones in place of Blair Alston on 63 minutes.

The home side were seeing more of the ball as they looked to capitalise on the man advantage but Carson was relatively untested heading into the final 15 minutes. Stephen Robinson brought Ryan Flynn on for Kiltie on 78 minutes. 

Carson was called into action with less than 10 minutes remaining with the Northern Ireland international making a brilliant two-handed save to push Christian Doidge's header over the bar from point blank range. 

Trevor Carson made a point-blank save to deny Christian Doidge (Image: David Henderson)

Another two changes were made with Joe Shaughnessy and Alex Greive entering the fray for Saints on 84 minutes and heading into the final moments it was the latter who could have won it for the Buddies. Scott Tanser's corner was cleared but Marcus Fraser got the ball back into the area where it found substitute Alex Greive, but the New Zealand forward blazed inches over the bar. 

Full-Time: Kilmarnock 0-0 St Mirren

St Mirren: Carson, Fraser (c), Gallagher, Dunne, Strain (Shaughnessy 84), Baccus, Kiltie (Flynn 78), Erhahon, Tanser, Brophy (Gogic 15), Main (Greive 84)
Subs Not Used: Urminsky, R.Taylor, Reid, F.Taylor, Olusanya

Kilmarnock: Walker, Mayo, A.Taylor (c), Wright (Murray 75), Chrisene, Armstrong, Alston (Jones 63), Polworth, McKenzie, Robinson (Shaw 90), Doidge
Subs Not Used: Hemming, Stokes, Waters, McInroy, Lyons, Wales

Referee: Grant Irvine
Assistant Referee: Drew Kirkland
Assistant Referee: Andy Milne
Fourth Official: Stewart Luke
VAR: Gavin Duncan
Assistant VAR: Gary Hilland

Attendance: 7,008 (1,476 St Mirren supporters)

We can confirm that St Mirren Youth Academy graduate Luke Kenny has signed a contract extension. 

The 19-year-old defender signed his first professional contract with the club in 2020 and that has now been extended. 

Luke is currently on loan at Lowland League side East Kilbride to gain valuable playing experience that will help aid his development. 

St Mirren Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of Richard Taylor on a deal until the end of the season - subject to international clearance - with the club holding an option to extend further.

The defender joins the club following the expiry of his contract at League of Ireland First Division side Waterford where he made 33 appearances.

The 22-year-old Englishman began his career at Burnley before signing for Southend United in 2019. Richard would have further spells at Barnet, Dulwich Hamlet and Dagenham & Redbridge before signing for Waterford in January last year.

Speaking on the signing, manager Stephen Robinson said: "Richard came to our attention as a left-sided centre-half and left-footed defenders is something we don’t have a lot of.

"He has very good attributes. He’s six-foot-three, very quick and has a good left-foot.

"He’s someone who will come in on a short-term deal to challenge for a place and give us a bit more depth.

"With Jay Henderson going out for game time it’s allowed us to use his wage to bring Richard in on a short-term deal with the potential to earn a longer deal which I’m quietly confident he will do."

St Mirren Football Club is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Frank McGarvey at the age of 66. 

Frank McGarvey arrived at Love Street in December 1974 and became a regular during 1975-76. The striker’s first competitive goal came in a League Cup win over East Fife on the 9th August. He went on to score 11 times from 40 appearances.

1976-77 was the season that Fergie’s Furies came of age and none more so than Frank. He scored 17 league goals as Saints marched to the old First Division title and promotion to the Premier League. 

Frank was the star as the title was clinched at Dens Park on the 19th April, claiming his first senior hat-trick in a 4-0 rout of Dundee. This form was not unnoticed with Frank winning a Scotland Under-21 cap against England. He added a second against Czechoslovakia in September, as his good form continued in the top-flight. 

McGarvey again scored 17 league goals with six in cup competition to remain Saints' top scorer. He gained further honours when he played for the Scottish League side against the Italian League in April 1978.

McGarvey continued to score goals in the 1978/79 season with 13 seeing his top scorer again. This form attracted the attention of English clubs and it was no surprise when Liverpool took him south in May 1979.

After 10 months at Anfield, Frank returned to Scotland for a five-year spell at Celtic, culminating in scoring the winner in the 1985 Scottish Cup final - his final match for Celtic. 

He would return to Love Street in June 1985 and was soon back in scoring in the black and white, netting in his second match. He ended the season with 12 goals, including a double in our UEFA Cup victory over Slavia Prague.

The 1987 Scottish Cup was, by McGarvey’s own admission, one of the highlights of his career. Wins over Caledonian, Raith Rovers and Morton took Saints to Hampden for a semi-final against Hearts. With the score tied at 1-1, the ball broke to Frank inside the six-yard box and he managed to guide it under Henry Smith, to take Saints into the final.

16th May 1987. 10 years after helping Saints win the First Division; McGarvey played his part as the Scottish Cup returned to Paisley.

In April 1988 manager Alex Smith resigned and Tony Fitzpatrick took over with Frank named player/assistant manager. His final season at the club saw him concentrate more on the managerial role, making just four appearances during 1989-90. His final match was against Hibernian on the 16th September. At the end of the season he joined Queen of the South as player/manager.

In May 2005, McGarvey was inducted into the St Mirren Hall of Fame having made 341 appearances scoring 102 goals across his two spells at the club. 

Frank will forever be remembered at St Mirren and our deepest condolences are with Frank's loved ones at this very sad time. 

Rest in peace, Frank.