It is the third meeting of the Saints today. The previous two meetings have drawn stalemate over 90 minutes. Recently, poor home displays are wedged by excellent away form for the Perth Saints. McDiarmid Park was a stumbling ground for Saints campaign last year, and already this season it has witnessed a number of lacklustre displays against Raith, Brechin and Ayr.
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"We’ve proven we can do well in tough away matches and our away performances are the type of performances we want every week.
"Last season I believe it was home form which let the team down, and this season so far we’ve stuttered a bit as well, with one or two terrible results and poor performances. Although you don’t want to dwell on it, it’s something we’re mindful of and something we’re looking to put right. We’ve discussed it this week and a few things have been mentioned. With a few good results it will all be forgotten. I thought after our opening-day win over Queen of the South we would go on to establish McDiarmid as a difficult place to come to. The first quarter is over but we can still do that. In my own mind I think it’s a matter of time before."
On the league positioning he said;
"We’re obviously not where we want to be in the league," the former Aberdeen man admitted. "We know what we’re capable of but we’ve thrown away some points. But for that we’d be at the top of the league. But we’ve played every team in the division and there’s nobody for us to fear. Now we’re looking to make inroads into the gap between us and the leaders and that will be about finding consistency. If we’re on our game regularly we’ll achieve what we set out to do."
Billy Stark is looking to the team to fully address Perth blues;
"It’s not as if I haven’t mentioned the home form to the players over a period of time, but this week we’ve looked at it head on. Talking is all you can do until you get the chance to turn it around on the pitch, and that chance is there tomorrow. To be fair to them, the players have not made excuses. We know we can’t sort it out in one home match against St Mirren, but we have to begin to do it."
Injury wise, the selection pool, remains the same as last week, with only longer term victims Weir, Connolly and Lovering unavailable.
St Mirren continue to have injury problems, which have set back their campaign which was viewed by some sections of the media as title challenging. They will be without ex-Dundee favourite Eddie Annand and Kirk Broadfoot is struggling. Alan Russell returns along with Barry Lavety and Laurie Ellis. Kevin Twaddle will no doubt be in the Paisley line up today.
St. Mirren manager John Coughlin commented;
"I am disappointed that we cannot send out the same team as last week, but in all my time here I have been able to do that only twice."