St Mirren Face Partick Thistle in Two-Match Play-Off
st mirren begin a two-match play-off against Partick Thistle on Thursday night at Firhill, with a place in the Scottish Premiership next season at stake. The tie puts their eight-year stay in the top flight against Partick Thistle’s push to end an eight-year absence.
Firhill Starts the Tie
Partick Thistle finished second in the Championship and reached the final after beating Dunfermline Athletic 3-2 on aggregate in the semi-final. St Mirren finished second bottom of the Premiership, which is why they enter the tie as the higher-level club and start as favourites.
The opener comes at Firhill before the second leg shifts to St Mirren’s home ground. That home return gives Craig McLeish’s side the chance to finish the job in front of their own supporters if they can take something from the first night in Glasgow.
McLeish and Robinson
McLeish has won three of his 10 games in interim charge and said he is the "best person to take the club forward" from next season regardless of the division. He also said, "The results maybe haven't gone our way and ultimately it wasn't enough to avoid a play-off spot," while adding, "But it's not like we're looking like a team that are lost or don't know what they're doing or are low in confidence."
That message matters because St Mirren arrive after four defeats in a row without scoring, a run that left them in 11th place. They also ended the regular season with 10 fewer goals than Livingston, a gap that points to why the margin between safety and the play-off was so tight.
St Mirren and Partick Thistle
St Mirren’s season has still produced high points. They beat Celtic in December’s Premier Sports Cup final to win the League Cup for the second time, and Stephen Robinson’s four-year spell included three top-six finishes before he left for Aberdeen in March.
Partick Thistle have brought their own momentum into the tie. They finished 11 points behind St Johnstone and 15 points clear of third-place Arbroath in the Championship, then turned that into a 3-2 aggregate semi-final win over Dunfermline Athletic.
The return leg now carries the season’s weight. St Mirren are trying to keep their Premiership place; Partick Thistle are trying to take it from them.
