Saturday sees the third battle of the Saints in the Scottish Premiership as St Johnstone head to Paisley to face St Mirren. Both of the previous ties have been lively encounters, with St Mirren winning 3-1 at home in October and 3-2 in Perth in December. St Johnstone's insistence on attacking for the whole game came back to bite them as the Perth side led on both occasions, only for St Mirren to ultimately get the better of them on the counter attack.

After a busy January in which St Johnstone have turned over a large amount of their squad, they are perhaps fortunate that they have had two consecutive games against a Motherwell side in something of a crisis. St Johnstone knocked 'Well out of the cup before beating them on league duty, after which Motherwell's manager resigned due to receiving personal abuse from the fanbase. This has given St Johnstone a boost as they look to claw back a 7 point deficit at the bottom of the table.

It is for these reasons then that St Mirren's win price looks relatively inflated at 1.85. St Mirren are fresh off a 3-0 away win at Aberdeen, a game in which they expertly hit the hosts on the counter. St Johnstone will set up to dominate possession and commit men forward as they look to get wins on the board, and this suits St Mirren's style of play perfectly. St Mirren managed 1.76 xG from just 6 shots at Aberdeen, conceding 1.40 xG in the process. Against Dundee United earlier in January, they produced 2.39 xG against 1.41 conceded, but struggled to find a breakthrough before conceding in the last few minutes.

St Mirren also hosted Rangers in late December, winning 2-1 despite having just 25% possession and conceding 1.49 xG. This all backs up the fact that St Mirren are ideally suited to counter attacking football, and with St Johnstone looking to dominate the ball possession, we believe there is good value in backing the more effective team to claim the win. St Johnstone's recent matches against Dundee, Dundee United and Hearts have all seen the Perth Saints dominate the ball and chance creation but ultimately lose to the more effective team.

St Mirren have had an extremely quiet January transfer window, and their squad is in a settled position. St Johnstone meanwhile have had all three of their primary CBs this season leave the club in Neilson, Sanders and Cameron. Talks are ongoing for their strongest forward Kimpioka to depart the club and he isn't expected to feature on Saturday. Replacements have been found for most of these transfers out but St Mirren should be able to capitalise on an unsettled squad looking to play attacking football.

Best odds can be found at William Hill.