Preview: St Mirren vs. Dundee - prediction, team news, lineups

Separated by 4 places successful the Scottish Premiership table, St Mirren are favourites to adjacent retired the twelvemonth with a affirmative effect against Dundee successful Sunday's gameweek 20 clash astatine the SMISA Stadium.

Stephen Robinson's men person claimed 3 wins connected the trot, and they question a 4th against a broadside entering the last circular of 2024 aiming to debar a 4th top-flight nonaccomplishment successful a row.

Match preview

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Rangers mightiness person gone into Boxing Day undefeated successful six matches (five wins), claiming 4 wins connected the spin, but St Mirren had different ideas, inflicting a 2-1 nonaccomplishment connected the second-placed outfit.

Oisin Smyth and Caolan Boyd-Munce scored either broadside of a Danilo equaliser to seal the Buddies' 3rd Premiership triumph successful a row, leaving them a constituent down Dundee United successful 4th earlier the last circular of 2024.

While Robinson's troops are finishing the twelvemonth strongly, it remains to beryllium seen however sustainable outscoring the hostile is, with the Saints' victories by one-goal margins: 3-2 astatine St Johnstone and a brace of 2-1 wins implicit Ross County and Rangers.

Having kept conscionable 2 cleanable sheets successful 19 league rounds, St Mirren participate the 20th gameweek without a shutout since a goalless location gully with Ross County connected November 2, highlighting their inability to support opponents astatine bay for 90 minutes.

That statistic explains wherefore they person conceded 30 goals this term, importantly much than each squad successful the league's apical five: Celtic (four), Rangers (11), Aberdeen (25) and Dundee United (20) person each conceded less than Robinson's side.

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Despite a miserable three-game losing run, struggling Dundee anticipation to nett from St Mirren's leaky rearguard connected Sunday, keen to debar losing a 4th consecutive match.

Tony Docherty's men mightiness person accrued 8 less points than the hostile they sojourn this weekend, adjacent though they person conceded conscionable 3 less goals, further magnifying the hosts' antiaircraft vulnerability.

Nevertheless, the Dark Blues indispensable find their shooting boots soon to springiness themselves immoderate accidental connected Sunday and subsequently successful 2025, aft firing blanks successful their caller losses to Hearts (2-0), Rangers (1-0) and Ross County (3-0).

The ongoing blanks person followed a erstwhile tally of scoring successful 5 consecutive Premiership matches, which produced 3 wins and a brace of 4-1 victories implicit Hibernian and Motherwell.

That mentation of the Dundee-based nine undoubtedly gives the Dee a accidental of ending their three-match winless tally against gameweek 20's opponents (two losses); however, their inefficient signifier could permission the ninth-placed broadside looking implicit their shoulder, with Ross County (18 points) 1 constituent down and second-bottom Hearts 2 points adrift.

St Mirren Scottish Premiership form:

Dundee Scottish Premiership form:

Team News

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Scott Tanser missed the Boxing Day triumph owed to suspension, and the Englishman could instrumentality astatine wing-back for Sunday's last lucifer of 2024.

Conor McMenamin, Mark O'Hara and Charles Dunne volition beryllium assessed aft missing Thursday's triumph against the league's second-placed side.

Although helium was replaced by eventual match-winner Boyd-Munce, nary St Mirren subordinate has matched Roland Idowu's 2 game-clinching strikes this term; lone Rangers' Vaclav Cerny (four) and Celtic's Nicolas Kuhn and Arne Engels (three each) person outdone the 22-year-old.

While Dundee sustained nary evident Boxing Day injuries, the visitors volition measure Joe Shaughnessy, Ziyad Larkeche, Clark Robertson and Scott Fraser earlier Sunday.

The Dee's goals person dried up successful caller weeks, but Lyall Cameron notched 3 successful 2 appearances preceding the team's ongoing drought, and the midfielder aims to rediscover that goalscoring interaction this weekend.

The distant side's joint-top scorer, Simon Murray, has netted arsenic galore arsenic Cameron this word (four), though helium past scored successful aboriginal November (a 4-1 nonaccomplishment astatine Aberdeen).

St Mirren imaginable starting lineup:
Balcombe; Fraser, Gogic, Iacovitti; Bwomono, Smyth, Phillips, Tanser; Idowu, Mandron, Kiltie

We say: St Mirren 2-1 Dundee

In-form St Mirren person gone 7 Premiership matches without a cleanable sheet, and that series could proceed contempt Dundee's struggles.

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