St Mirren are on the march to Hampden on Sunday with a place in the Betfred Cup final up for grabs as the Saints take on Livingston. 

The Buddies have had to do it the hard way to qualify for the last four. Jim Goodwin's men topped Group G after coming up against Morton, Partick Thistle, Queen of the South and Queen's Park before defeating Aberdeen 2-1 in the second-round thanks to goals from Ilkay Durmus and Jamie McGrath.

Saints then became the first, and so far only, team to beat Rangers this season when the two met in December in the quarter-final. Connor Goldson gave the Ibrox side an early lead. But a double from McGrath either side of half-time put St Mirren in front. A dramatic finish saw Steven Davis net a late equaliser for Rangers, only for Conor McCarthy to score the winner for Saints in injury time.

Livingston also topped their Betfred Cup group having won all of their group matches - defeating Edinburgh City, Alloa Athletic, Stenhousemuir and Airdrieonians. The Lions then defeated Ayr United (4-0) and Ross County (2-0) in the following rounds to qualify for this weekend's semi. 

Match Details

Livingston v St Mirren
Competition: Betfred Cup
Date: Sunday 24th January 2021
Kick-off: 4pm
Venue: Hampden Park

How to watch the match

Premier Sports will have live and exclusive coverage of our match within the UK and Ireland. To find out how to sign-up please follow this link.

International subscribers to St Mirren TV can watch on St Mirren TV as part of their subscription.  

Previous

Saints have been victorious in the two meetings against Livingston this season - winning 1-0 on both occasions.

The first came on the opening day of the 2020/21 season with Richard Tait scoring his first St Mirren goal to secure the win.

Jake Doyle-Hayes was the match-winner when the Buddies travelled to Livingston in November. 

Who are the officials?

David Munro is the referee on Sunday and he'll be assisted by David Roome and Drew Kirkland. The fourth official is Alan Muir. 

In a season like no other where fans have given incredible levels of support to the club, Saints supporters have stepped up yet again. 

Following the news from our appeal hearing that the club would have to pay a £10,000 fine to the SPFL, supporters have set up a gofundme page to help raise money to go towards the fine.

St Mirren Chief Executive Tony Fitzpatrick said: "The support we receive from our fans never fails to amaze us and on behalf of everyone at St Mirren Football Club we thank them for their generosity in these challenging times."

Premier Sports will have live and exclusive coverage of St Mirren’s Betfred Cup Semi-Final tie against Livingston this Sunday in our quest to win the competition for the first time since 2013.

How to watch on TV in the UK

- Sky customers signing up at www.premiersports.com can watch St Mirren this Sunday on Premier Sports HD on channel 412. New customers can subscribe from just £9.99 per month (6 month minimum term) or £12.99 per month (1 month minimum term) with no connection fee or £120 annually.

Premier Sports customers on Sky will also receive free access to the Premier Player by registering here - https://www.premierplayer.tv/subscribe/existing-customer

- Online (Web, iOS App, Android App): www.premierplayer.tv Premier Player from just £12.99 per month (1 month minimum term) with no connection fee or £99 annually. If using App please set up account first on web browser before downloading the App.

- Virgin customers: Premier Sports channel 551. You can subscribe for £9.99 per month via the provider with no connection fee or minimum contract. Call 0845 840 7777 or set up viewing via box. (Press Home > Apps and Games > All Apps > TV Upgrades.)

Premier Sports offer paid subscription services. Payments for subscriptions to Premier Sports via Sky or the Premier Player streaming service will automatically recur monthly or annually dependent on your chosen package unless notice is given to cancel. The auto-recurring price will be at the standard rate.

Cancelations must be made by phone or email and must include a minimum 5 days’ notice prior to next bill. No cancelations accepted within 48 hours of subscribing. Minimum Subscriptions period is dependant (and matches) your chosen package. Terms and Conditions apply.

For full terms and conditions visit www.premiersports.com

Good Evening Shareholders

In a season like no other, we will be hosting our AGM on Thursday 21st January virtually via ZOOM conferencing.

In advance of the AGM the Board of Directors have drafted a statement for your information.

To help make this AGM as problem free as possible we need your help in a few areas:

If you never received an email directly, after reading the information below please email david.jamieson@stmirren.com in response to points 1 and 2 with regards attendance and questions if you have any.

Days prior to the AGM Meeting

1. If possible, can you reply to this email before Wednesday 20th January by 2.00 pm if you are planning on attending the AGM virtually.
2. If you have a question you wish raised at the AGM, if this could again reply to this email by Wednesday 20th January by 2.00 pm, this will allow us to collate and prepare responses.
3. We will be hosting a test event on Wednesday between 3.00 pm and 5.00 pm, if possible could you attend this event to ensure that your connection works.
4. The Meeting room details for the test event will be emailed on Wednesday morning

On the day prior to the meeting

1. The AGM meeting room details will be emailed on Thursday morning.
2. There will be a virtual waiting room in operation where we will verify identity prior to the meeting starting.
3.The waiting room will open at 4.00 pm and close at 7.30 pm to allow the meeting to start promptly.
4. Upon admittance to the meeting all cameras and will be turned off and sound muted.

During the meeting

1. All cameras and sound must remain muted.
2. The Board of Directors will be visible and unmuted.
3. Any questions on the night should be emailed to david.jamieson@stmirren.com, these will be grouped and forwarded to the chair for response.
4. The chat function will be monitored, if you have any technical queries please use this.

We will review all of the areas prior to the meeting and will update everyone of any changes.

Thank you for your co-operation.

The Board of Directors were extremely concerned by the ill-informed and inaccurate headlines that appeared in the Press on 1 December 2020. The following information seeks to clarify the position and is intended to reassure shareholders with regard to the club’s financial strength.

To provide some context, in October we asked our auditors (Azets) to review a number of our business operations. This was part of our strategy to review all operations and enhance governance across the Club. One area which we asked them to consider was the status of a number of staff that we had hitherto classified as self-employed. Azets prepared a report for the Board which was received in November and concluded that, on balance, some of our staff ought to be treated as employees who would be subject to PAYE. The report makes it clear that the question of whether or not someone is self-employed or employed is a complex one in any business. In our case there are a number of factors which point either way.

Following on from this report, and in an attempt to gain clarity, we decided to self-refer the matter to HMRC for their view. HMRC were contacted by telephone on Friday 20 November and have since confirmed verbally that we should make the necessary changes to the status of the relevant employees going forward. Action is underway to make these changes. We have acted on a proactive basis and co-operated fully with HMRC.

Understandably we wanted to have their definitive view on this before we held the AGM.

The Azets report also highlighted a number of risks within the Club’s operations. It was decided to engage an independent firm of Accountants to check that none of these risks had resulted in loss. We appointed Gerber Landa & Gee (GLG), a firm highly experienced in professional football club finances, and are delighted to confirm that no evidence of any loss was found. GLG have further confirmed that the changes in process implemented should ensure that the risks previously highlighted have been addressed.

The Board of Directors trusts that the foregoing corrects any misunderstanding caused by ill-informed and inaccurate press reports.

Our Scottish Premiership matches against Motherwell and Hamilton, originally due to take place in October, have been rescheduled. 

The full rescheduled match details are:

Wednesday 17th February 2021
St Mirren v Hamilton Academical
Kick-off: 6pm

Wednesday 24th February 2021
St Mirren v Motherwell
Kick-off: 6pm

Meanwhile, our match against Celtic, which was due to take place at Celtic Park on Saturday 31st October 2020, will now be played on Saturday 30th January with a 3pm kick-off.

Our trip to Dundee United on Wednesday 27th January will now kick-off at 6pm and our home match against Hibernian, originally due to take place on Wednesday 3rd February (7.45pm), has been moved to Tuesday 2nd February (6pm). 

St Mirren Youth Academy graduate Ethan Erhahon made his 50th first-team appearance for St Mirren on Saturday.

The 19-year-old was a second-half substitute in the Saints' narrow loss to St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

Ethan, who has been with the club since the age of five, made his St Mirren debut at 16 in a Challenge Cup tie against Raith Rovers at the SMiSA Stadium in 2017. He would make one further appearance in the 2017/18 season on the final day of the Scottish Championship season. 

In the 2018/19 season, Ethan would become a regular in the first-team making 20 Scottish Premiership appearances in the unfamiliar role of left-back. But chances were limited for the midfielder the following season as he was reduced to just four league cup appearances.

This season has seen Ethan feature on a regular basis for Jim Goodwin's side having made 22 appearances across all competitions and in November 2020, the midfielder extended his St Mirren contract until the summer of 2023. 

St Mirren lost their first game of 2021 as Jim Goodwin's side were narrowly beaten by St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

Chris Kane's early second-half goal was enough to give the hosts all the points on a poor afternoon for Paisley Saints who finished the game with 10 men as Cammy MacPherson was shown red.

Jim Goodwin made two changes from the side that drew 1-1 with Motherwell last week with MacPherson and Eamonn Brophy coming in for Ethan Erhahon and Kyle McAllister. 

Neither side created much to threaten either goalkeeper in the opening 45 minutes. David Wotherspoon curled a free-kick wide on 21 minutes, while Joe Shaughnessy nodded wide from a Jamie McGrath set piece two minutes later.

Shaughnessy made a vital block to deny Guy Melamed after Chris Kane had spun away from Conor McCarthy to race forward into space. Kane slipped the ball wide to Melamed who broke into the St Mirren box and checked on to his left foot but had his effort blocked by the Saints skipper. It was a vital block from the Irishman with the Israeli striker looking primed to break the deadlock just after the half-hour mark.

Saints couldn't have wished for a worst start to the second-half when the hosts took the lead within 30 seconds of the restart. Kane raced on to a Melamed flick-on and despite Jak Alnwick getting a strong block in on the first effort, the St Johnstone striker rolled home the rebound. There was frustration from Saints given the ball had come off Melamed's arm in the build-up to the goal.

St Mirren's afternoon went from bad to worse when they were reduced to 10 men with Cammy MacPherson given his marching orders on 56 minutes. The midfielder was booked just before half-time for a foul on Melamed and received his second booking for a foul on the same man.

Kane should have doubled his and St Johnstone's tally on 67 minutes when he was picked out in acres of space by Wotherspoon. The striker's effort was brilliant turned over by Alnwick who made a terrific one-handed save to tip over.

Saints were still probing despite only having 10 men, but the closest they came was on 82 minutes when McCarthy headed over from McGrath's free-kick.

In truth it was a quiet afternoon for St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark and a disappointing day for the Paisley Saints.

Full-Time: St Johnstone 1-0 St Mirren

St Mirren: Alnwick, Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy (c), Tait, McGrath, Doyle-Hayes, MacPherson, Connolly (Erhahon 60), Erwin (Obika 87), Brophy (Quaner 68, McAllister 87)
Subs Not Used: Lyness, Flynn, Foley, Durmus, Dennis

St Johnstone: Clark, Rooney, Kerr, McCart, Tanser, McCann, Bryson (Craig 88), Wotherspoon (Davidson 68), Gordon, Melamed (May 68), Kane (Hendry 82)
Subs Not Used: Parish, Booth, Craig, Conway, O'Halloran

Referee: Steven MacLean
Assistant Referee: Graeme Stewart
Assistant Referee: David Dunne
Fourth Official: Matthew MacDermid 

St Mirren Football Club is delighted at the Decision of the Judicial Panel at the Appeal Hearing. The Club thanks the Panel for their review of the case and their determination that the sanctions handed out by the SPFL Tribunal was excessive and inappropriate.

The decision of the Appeal hearing that the matches be rearranged is a victory for common sense and the reduction of the fine from £40,000 suspended to £20,000 with £10,000 suspended is acknowledged by the Club.

The challenges facing everyone throughout this difficult time have never been underestimated by the Club and, the Club recognises that it will always strive to do its utmost to protect its players, staff and as soon as is safe, its loyal supporters.

The Club wishes to thank all of the supporters of St Mirren for their unwavering loyalty and dedication to the team and the Club as we navigated through this process. The messages of support have encouraged the Club to stand fast and fight against the injustice that was placed upon the Club.

We would also like to thank the supporters and clubs from around the world who have shown solidarity with ourselves during this time.

We hope that as we progress through this difficult time, no other Club faces the trials and tribulations that St Mirren and Kilmarnock FC have gone through and instead a common sense and supportive approach is taken by governing bodies to support members in unprecedented times.

We would finally like to thank our legal team of Addleshaw Goddard and Robert Milligan QC for their professionalism, advice and support throughout this process.

The Club will update supporters further in due course and we look forward to finishing the season with success on the pitch.

Disorderly Conduct means;

(i) Conduct which stirs up or sustains, or is likely or designed to stir up or sustain, hatred or ill will against or towards a group or persons based on their membership or presumed membership of a group defined by reference to a Category or against an individual who is or is presumed to be of the following categories: 

• Gender, colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin
• Membership or presumed membership, of a religious group or of a social or cultural group with perceived religious affiliation
• Sexual orientation
• Transgender identity 
• Disability

 by the person or persons engaged in the Conduct to be a member of such group.

(ii) Using threatening, abusive or insulting words or conduct

(iii) Displaying any writing or other thing which is threatening, abusive or insulting, or

(iv) Using words or conduct or displaying wiring or other thing which indicates support for, or affiliation to, or celebration of, or opposition to an organisation or group proscribed in terms of the Terrorism Act 2000, and any successive or replacement legislation thereto: 

Sanctions;

Any Person committing Disorderly conduct and/or any person who assists another or others to commit Disorderly conduct, may be subject to any, or a combination of the following;

• Refusal of entry to the stadium
• Removal from the stadium
• Suspension from attending matches of St Mirren
• Indefinite ban from attending matches of St Mirren
• Be the subject of a report to Police Scotland and/or any prosecuting authorities which may result in possible criminal proceedings

Reference:     

Supporters Code of Conduct

Crowd Disorder and Anti-Social Behaviour

Stadium Regulations

Supporters Charter

Unacceptable Conduct