Two teams in the bottom half of the Scottish Premiership will collide on Saturday when Livingston travel to the Paisley 2021 stadium to face St. Mirren. The hosts have not managed a victory in their previous four outings, while the visitors are looking to get back to winning ways for the first time in two games following consecutive draws.
St. Mirren have recently slipped down to eighth in the Scottish Premier League table, and that is something they will want to set right this weekend. Given that they are level on points with both Aberdeen and Hibernian, they have a chance to potentially climb the division with a victory. However, they will need to stop their recent form to do so after failing to win their last four matches, which included two draws and two defeats.
Their previous match before the international break ended goalless between them and St. Johnstone, and they managed only three shots on target in that match. The squad will take confidence from the fact that they beat Livingston when they met earlier on in the season, with a goal from Ethan Erhahon proving to be the winner for them.
St. Mirren have completed the most number of recoveries so far in the league, averaging 84.85 recoveries per 90 minutes. More number of recoveries mean that the work rate of the players is high, and they work hard to recover possession of the ball, not giving enough time to opposition players on the pitch.
Even though they are lower than St Mirren in the table right now, the Lions are actually in stronger form, having built up a four-game unbeaten run. Livingston cannot afford to repeat the same result during the weekend, as they sit directly above the relegation zone, and there are just two points between them and Dundee. A defeat on Saturday could see them slip into the bottom two and would also allow Ross County to put them under pressure, which is something the club would like to avoid.
Livingston defeated St Johnstone and Ross County and then followed that up with draws against Dundee United and Celtic. Livingston have the most successful defensive duels in the league and have a high success rate in winning duels. They have conceded 16 goals so far in the league, which is lower than the other teams in the bottom half of the table. They were also able to keep a clean sheet against Celtic, who have scored the most number of goals.
Livingston continued their excellent recent record over Celtic by holding them to a 0-0 draw at Celtic Park, making it four matches unbeaten now for the side recovering from a tough start to the season. They are now unbeaten in three Scottish Premiership matches on the road and well capable of continuing that run away at St. Mirren. St. Mirren have lost back-to-back home games to teams at either side of the table and failed to score in each of their last two. They will be desperately hoping for a change this weekend and trying to add three points to their tally.
St Mirren predicted starting lineup:
Alnwick, Shaughnessy, McCarthy, Fraser, Tanser, Tait, Power, Flynn, Ronan, McGrath, Main.
Livingston predicted starting lineup:
Stryjek, Kelly, Parkes, Fitzwater, Devlin, Longridge, Shinnie, Holt, Omeonga, Bailey, Anderson.
