St Mirren
Also written as St. Mirren.
The club
St Mirren were founded in 1877 and play at St Mirren Park in Paisley, Renfrewshire, the ground they moved into in 2009. Wikipedia's infobox gives the capacity as 8,000; the more precise figure published elsewhere is 7,937. The club are known as the Buddies, after the Paisley demonym, and also as the Saints. They play in black and white vertical stripes.
Recent seasons
St Mirren have been a Premiership club throughout the period. They finished sixth in 2020/21, fifth in 2021/22, eighth in 2022/23, seventh in 2023/24 and sixth in 2024/25. That 2024/25 finish followed the club's first European campaign in 37 years: in the UEFA Conference League they beat Valur of Iceland 4-1 on aggregate in the second qualifying round and lost 4-2 on aggregate to SK Brann of Norway in the third.
2025/26 was the strangest season in the club's modern history, because they won a national trophy and were almost relegated in the same year. They finished eleventh with 34 points from 38 games, eight wins, ten draws and twenty defeats, scoring only 30 goals. That took them into the relegation play-off final against Partick Thistle, drawn 1-1 away and won 1-0 at home on 25 May 2026, 2-1 on aggregate. Mikael Mandron was top scorer with 13 goals in all competitions, but only four of those came in the league.
Honours and landmarks
Three Scottish Cups: 1926, 1959 and 1987. Two League Cups: 2013 and 2025. Second-tier league titles in 1967/68, 1976/77, 1999/2000, 2005/06 and 2017/18. The Challenge Cup in 2005/06. Record attendance is 47,438 against Celtic on 20 August 1949, at the old Love Street. Hugh Murray holds the appearance record with 462 competitive games between 1997 and 2012. David McCrae scored 221 league goals between 1923 and 1934, and Dunky Walker's 45 league goals in 1921/22 is the club's single-season record. Record fee received is £850,000 from Rangers for Ian Ferguson in February 1988; record fee paid is £400,000 to Bayer Uerdingen for Thomas Stickroth in March 1990. The League Cup does not carry a European place in Scotland, so the 2025 win did not put the club into the 2026/27 Conference League; Scotland's places there went to Motherwell and Hibernian on league position.
Notable scorelines
Record victory: 15-0 against Glasgow University in the Scottish Cup on 30 January 1960. No record defeat is published in the club's records section on Wikipedia, and none was established from any other source consulted, so treat it as unknown.
The famous recent match is the League Cup final of 14 December 2025, when St Mirren beat Celtic 3-1 at Hampden through Marcus Fraser and two from Jonah Ayunga. It was the club's second League Cup and their first trophy in twelve years. The route there was almost entirely by shootout: they won their group ahead of Arbroath (beaten on penalties), Forfar Athletic (2-1), Annan Athletic (8-2) and Ayr United (2-1), then beat Hearts on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the second round, Kilmarnock on penalties after 2-2 in the quarter-final, and Motherwell 4-1 in the semi. The 2013 final was a 3-2 win over Hearts at Hampden. Two heavy defeats from 2025/26 are worth a writer's attention: 5-0 at home to Motherwell on 21 February 2026, and 6-2 to Celtic after extra time in the Scottish Cup semi-final on 19 April 2026.
Head-to-head notes
No all-time head-to-head records were established. St Mirren's own website does not publish them, and 11v11.co.uk blocks automated access. What follows is last season's evidence only.
Aberdeen were the one side St Mirren handled, seven points from four meetings and two 2-0 wins in the run-in. Falkirk, their opening opponents, were beaten 2-1 twice away but won 2-0 in Paisley. Hearts: 2-2 at home, 0-2 away, 1-0 at home. Kilmarnock were the worst matchup, three defeats and a goalless draw, including 4-3 on 11 February 2026 and 3-0 in Paisley on 9 May. Celtic won all three league meetings 1-0 and the cup semi-final but lost the cup final. Rangers drew 1-1 in Paisley then won 2-1 and 1-0. Hibernian won 3-0 and 2-0 and drew 1-1; Motherwell drew 0-0 and won 2-0 and 5-0. No 2025/26 evidence exists for St Johnstone, who were in the Championship and have come back up.
Right now (2026/27)
Craig McLeish is the manager. Stephen Robinson left on 12 March 2026 and McLeish, who took over on an interim basis, is in charge for the new season. The club published a "Notice of Complaint: Craig McLeish" item in late July 2026; the article body was not readable from the club's news feed, so its substance is not established here.
Departures came first. James Scott was released on 1 June and Scott Tanser joined Falkirk on a free the same day. Oisin Smyth went to Partick Thistle on a free on 4 June, Conor McMenamin to Coleraine for an undisclosed fee on 23 June, and Dan Nlundulu to Petrolul Ploiesti on a free on 9 July. Tunmise Sobowale joined Shamrock Rovers on a permanent deal in July. Callum Penman and Lewis Hodgkiss went to Stenhousemuir on loan until January on 9 July.
The arrivals were mostly free transfers: Samuel Ramos from Zemplin Michalovce on 19 June, Ryan Carr from Ipswich Town on 24 June, Chris Mochrie from Airdrieonians on 25 June and Henry Fieldson from Queen's Park on 9 July. Jacob Chapman arrived on loan from Huddersfield Town on 1 July, Eseosa Sule from West Bromwich Albion for an undisclosed fee on 14 July, and Paul Nsio on loan from Rangers on 30 July. Marbill Coaches were announced as stadium naming partner on 30 July 2026.
The Premier Sports Cup start was strong after a bad opening. St Mirren lost 1-0 at home to Dunfermline Athletic in their first Group C match, then beat East Kilbride 4-3, won 4-0 at Dumbarton and 4-0 at Cove Rangers. Nine points and a goal difference of plus eight won the group from Dunfermline, who also had nine. The last-16 tie is away to Rangers at Ibrox on 16 August 2026, kick-off 16:00.
The league campaign opens away to Falkirk on Saturday 1 August 2026 at 15:00, an all-ticket match the club has confirmed is sold out. St Johnstone visit Paisley on 8 August and Motherwell on 29 August.
Sources
https://www.stmirren.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mirren_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_St_Mirren_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Scottish_Premiership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_Premiership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_League_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scottish_football_transfers_summer_2026 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mirren_F.C.
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.