A difficult afternoon at The SMiSA Stadium saw Saints beaten by Falkirk in our first home match of 2026.
Second-half goals from Finn Yeats and Calvin Miller gave the Bairns all three points on a disappointing day in Paisley. The defeat was compounded by further injuries to an already depleted squad with Shamal George, Killian Phillips and Liam Donnelly all having to be replaced during the match through injury.
Neither side created much in the opening period of the match, save for a deflected Dylan Tait effort that crashed off the bar on 20 minutes.
Saints injury woes were added to shortly before the half hour mark with Donnelly, one of two changes from last weekend's defeat, unable to continue. He was replaced by Jayden Richardson.
The Buddies had their first real opportunity on 31 minutes when Mikael Mandron forced a big save from the feet of Falkirk goalkeeper Scott Bain at his near post. George was called into action two minutes later after Calvin Miller used his speed to race clear of the Saints defence. The Saints stopper was down well to block the strike.
Richardson picked out Mandron on the edge of the area with 10 minutes. The striker turned well to get his strike away, but Bain managed to hold. Seconds later, Nlundulu drew a strong save from the opposition number one. The forward would have the ball in the net on 37 minutes when he raced on to a Killian Phillips pass and slotted beyond Bain. But he was well offside and the linesman's flag duly followed.
Stephen Robinson made a double change at the break with Scott Tanser replacing Declan John, while new signing Allan Campbell made his Saints bow in place of Phillips who suffered a shoulder injury in the opening half.
The visitors opened the scoring 10 minute after the restart. George rushed off his line to beat Miller to the ball. That allowed Yeats to pick up the ball and loop into the empty net from distance to break the deadlock. The Bairns added a second six minutes later when Miller got the break of the ball on the edge of the area and finished beyond George.
The deepening injury crisis at Saints was exacerbated with 25 minutes remaining when George couldn't continue with a knee injury and had to be replaced by Ryan Mullen.
Full-Time: St Mirren 0-2 Falkirk
St Mirren: George (Mullen 65), Fraser (c), King, Freckelton, McMenamin, Phillips (Campbell 46), Donnelly (Richardson 27), Taylor, John (Tanser 46), Nlundulu (Dijksteel 79), Mandron
Subs Not Used: Sobowale, Idowu, Douglas, Mooney
Falkirk: Bain, McCann, Henderson, Spencer (c), Yeats (Wilson 78), Cartwright (Ross 78), Allan, Tait, Lissah (Donaldson 90), Miller (Williams 78), Stewart (Parkinson 78)
Subs Not Used: Hogarth, Adams, Graham, Nesbitt
Referee: Steven McLean
AR1: Gordon Crawford
AR2: Craig Ferguson
Fourth Official: Cameron Stirling
VAR: Greg Aitken
Attendance: 7,062
