Buoyed by a midweek win against Dundee United, but still bottom of the league, St Mirren come to Palmerston on Saturday for our final match against the Paisley side this season.
The Opposition
The teams last met in Paisley on the 7th January, when goals from Dobbie, Thomson and a MacKenzie own goal were enough for a 3-0 away win. That was our second win in the town this season and the second time we'd scored three goals. The last home game, which was Gary Naysmiths first in charge, saw the Buddies come out on top, after a late, late winner led to what was their first league win of the season on the 6th December and some unbelievable scenes in the away end!
Its been all change in Paisley since the last meeting between the clubs though, as Jack Ross has looked to stamp his identity on the Saints squad with ten players leaving the club and ten joining.
Of those going out, Jason Naismith and Kyle McAllister have made steps up to Ross County and Derby County, respectively, while Lawrence Shankland has swapped a loan deal in Paisley for one in Greenock.
The ten players coming in includes Josh Todd and, reported Queens target, Rory Loy both of whom have connections with the area. Some of the other new signings will be familiar to fans of Scottish football, like Craig Storie and Cammy Smith, both on loan from Aberdeen, Smith having already faced us this season while on loan at Dundee Utd. Others will be less familiar, like Pal Fjelde, signed from Bryne FK in Norway and Stelios Demetriou, the Cypriot defender signed from Doxa Katokopias.
Two of the higher profile signings made by Ross in January are Adam Eckersley and Stephen McGinn. Eckersley is an ex Manchester United player and while he never made a first team appearance for them went on to play at the highest level in Scandinavia, as well as a season each at Hearts and Hibs, before playing in the NASL last season for FC Edmonton.
McGinn, on the other hand, started his career with the Saints before spending the next 10 years plying his trade in England, save for a brief spell at Dundee in 2015. Now back at St Mirren he adds real quality to their midfield, much like his younger brother John does for Hibernian.
One new signing who wont feature on Saturday is Harry Davis. The young defender, on loan from Crewe, unfortuntely picked up a season ending injury in the midweek game against Dundee United.
After this match, the Buddies take a break from league action as they travel to Fir Park the following Saturday to take on Dundee United in the IRNBRU Cup final.
The Game
This Ladbrokes Championship match kicks off at 3pm on Saturday 18th March at Palmerston. Live updates will be available on the website and on Twitter and Facebook. We will also publish pictures through the day on our Instagram Channel
The Fans
For home fans, the normal ticket procedure applies for the game and tickets will be available for all areas of the ground on match day from the usual ticket offices. Tickets can also be purchased in advance from the Midsteeple and, from Thursday onwards, the Club Shop.
For season ticket holders, this will be match ticket 15. Full ticket details and pricing, for home and away fans, can be found here
Away fans will be in the Rosefield Salvage Stand. Tickets are on sale on the day at the ground from the usual ticket offices.
Directions on how to get to Palmerston, including parking information, can be found here
Never been to Palmerston before? Read our First Time Fan Guide
The Manager
The game at Morton rounded off a disappointing run of results for us. Again I felt we performed well but again our inability to defend as individuals and as a unit cost us. We didn't punish Morton when we were on top and failed to defend properly when we were put under pressure. The players know that these mistakes simply have to stop.
The last three results leaves it pretty much impossible for us to now make the playoffs. With eight games left we'd have to hope for the other teams to have a major collapse. However, there is still a lot to play for and we want to finish as high up the table as possible. if we can't get fourth then we want to finish fifth so we need to take as many points as possible between now and the end of the season.
This weekend's game against St Mirren will be another difficult game. Jack and James will have them well organised and they go into the game with confidence after a good win over Dundee United on Wednesday. They are fighting for their lives which makes them dangerous opponents although I feel it is all about what we do rather than what the opposition do.
The Team
Darren Brownlie misses this one through suspension and we have a few others with niggles so we will wait to the last minute.
The Officials
Referee : Andrew Dallas
Assistant 1 : Graeme Leslie
Assistant 2 : Barry Reid
Mr Dallas is a referee we know well and this will be his twelfth game in charge for us. We've only lost one of the previous eleven, a 1-0 defeat to Morton in the 15/16 League Cup. The other ten games have seen seven wins and three draws.
The Stats
The overall league head to heads show St Mirren with a clear advantage, 36 wins to 24 and 16 draws. We fare much better at Palmerston, however, with 15 wins to 13 for the Saints and 10 draws.
Most of those games, though, were over 10 years ago, with only 7 league games taking place between the two sides since 2006. St Mirren are edging those by 4 wins to 3. They've also recorded more wins at Palmerston than us, 2 to 1.