St Mirren will look to get back to winning ways this week as they take on Brechin City at the Paisley 2021 Stadium in the Scottish Championship on Saturday.
This will be the third time the teams have met this season, with the other two games finishing 2-1 in favour of The Buddies.
The first game took place in Paisley back in September and was a tough old slog for the home side, who relied on a 79th minute winner to rescue the three points. The Buddies started the game brightly and took the lead after 14 minutes when Cammy Smith slipped the ball under the keeper to get his sixth goal of the season. The Angus side pegged Saints back just before half time though, when former St Mirren U20s player Kalvin Orsi got on the end of deep cross to head past the opposing Craig Samson. It was late in the second half before St Mirren restored their lead, Dale Hilson managing to get a toe on to the end of a Ross Stewart cross to score his one and only goal for the team.
The next game was a similar story with a similar outcome; St Mirren took the lead early on when Gavin Reilly raced away from the Brechin defence to calmly place the ball past their keeper. Again, Saints were pegged back though as Isaac Layne managed to get in front of Jack Baird and knock the ball past the oncoming Samson to level the score. And just like the previous match The Buddies got the winner in the second half. Cammy Smith was brought down in the box and was awarded a penalty, which he stepped up to take himself and converted.
Saints had been unbeaten in the league since the beginning of December, but that record was snatched away from them last week as they suffered a 4-1 loss at the hands of title challengers Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
January signing Ryan Flynn had got the Paisley side in front within the first two minutes of the game, but a brace from ex-saint Ryan Hardie and a Lee Miller strike gave the West Lothian side a comfortable 3-1 lead going in at the break. Saints plugged away in the second half, with debutant Myles Hippolyte having his effort cleared off the goal line, but to no avail. Livi’s win was completed in injury time, as a defensive mixup resulted in Scott Robinson lifting the ball over Craig Samson to make the score 4-1.
There could be a potential debut tomorrow, as this week Jack Ross added former AC Milan midfielder, Massimo Donati, to the squad. The Italian has been training with the team for the last couple of weeks after being released by Hamilton Academical in January.
Both title contenders Livingston and Dundee Utd are in action on Friday night as they face each other at the Tony Macaroni Arena. Saint's will be hoping for a draw, so they can potentially extend the lead at the top of the Championship on Saturday to 13 points if they overcome Brechin.
