St Mirren ended their pre-season preparations with a comfortable victory away to Airdrieonians.
Mikael Mandron's scored a brace with a goal in each half ensuring a 2-0 win for the Buddies ahead of our Premier Sports Cup campaign getting underway on Saturday.
Saints controlled the match from the outset and could have found the net sooner than our 15th minute opener. Roland Idowu passed up an early chance when he shot into the side-netting after the Airdrieonians goalkeeper Cade Melrose spilled Jayden Richardson's low cross. The Diamonds stopper was called into action three minutes later as he made a good save to push away Killian Phillips' strike from 20 yards. Scott Tanser's ball over the top found Declan John who came inside before playing the ball to James Scott inside the area. Scott took one touch to lay it off for Ireland international Phillips who saw his effort saved.
The Buddies would go ahead on 15 minutes when Mandron got on the end of Marcus Fraser's low pass and reversed his shot beyond Melrose to break the deadlock.
Mandron should have added his and Saints' second 10 minutes before the break. The forward was fouled in the area and he stepped up to the spot after referee Matthew MacDermid awarded a penalty. Mandron was denied from 12 yards though as Melrose went the right way and got two strong hands behind it to push away.
Airdrieonians hadn't caused any real issues before Peter Urminsky was forced into a good save three minutes after the restart to deny Jamie Barjonas.
Saints were still in control and came close to a second when Mandron saw a low effort saved by Melrose a minute later before Richardson fired over from close-range. The second goal would come when Mandron got himself between two opposition defenders and bulleted home John's terrific ball in from the left to see out pre-season with a win.
Competitive action gets underway on Saturday as Stephen Robinson's men go to Gayfield to face Arbroath in our Group D opener in the Premier Sports Cup.
Full-Time: Airdrieonians 0-2 St Mirren
St Mirren: Urminsky, Fraser (c), Gogic, Tanser (Iacovitti 67), Richardson (Penman 67), Smyth, Phillips (O'Hara 67), John, Idowu, Mandron (Mooney 73), Scott (Taylor 67)
Subs Not Used: Mullen, Hutchison, Kenny, McEvoy, Falconer
