St Mirren

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St Mirren will have either 17-year-old Grant Tamosevicius, who has signed a contract extension after making his debut in Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Celtic, or Ross Sinclair, who has arrived on a seven-day emergency loan from St Johnstone, in goal against Livingston.

It follows Sunday's injury to Ryan Mullen, while Shamal George already sidelined.

Malik Dijksteel, Keanu Baccus and Marcus Fraser are out for the season, but forward Dan Nlundulu could be back.

Livingston forwards Connor McLennan and Jeremy Bokila are still out, but midfielder Aidan Denholm is closer to featuring after recovering a long-term hamstring injury.

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Goalkeeper Grant Tamosevicius has been handed a contract extension by St Mirren - just five days after conceding five goals on his debut.

The 17-year-old was thrust into action after Ryan Mullen injured himself conceding the opening goal in Sunday's 6-2 Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Celtic.

Tamosevicius had been on the bench following an injury to first-choice Shamal George and with Peter Urminsky on loan to Glentoran.

With Mullen being ruled out with a torn muscle that requires surgery, St Mirren have since signed St Johnstone goalkeeper Ross Sinclair on a seven-day emergency loan.

But Tamosevicius, who had a year left of his existing deal, did enough at Hampden to help secure a contract extension that keeps him at the Scottish Premiership club until summer 2029.

Interim manager Craig McLeish told St Mirren's website: "It was always something that was in the works, but following his debut on Sunday, we felt it was right to give Grant that reward.

"I brought Grant into the club when he was 13 and it's nice to be able to share this with him. He is a fantastic young goalkeeper and we've got really high hopes for him.

"Jamie Langfield has worked closely with Grant over the years and deserves a lot of credit in guiding him, as does academy director Allan McManus. He more than deserves this and we're delighted that it's completed."

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St Mirren interim manager Craig McLeish has been speaking to the media before his side host Livingston on Saturday.

Here are the key points from his press conference:

• On social media abuse directed at goalkeeper Ryan Mullen after the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat, McLeish says: "It's not real life, it's faceless accounts. Some of it may come from fans of our own club and fans of other clubs, but those same people aren't making those comments if they see you face to face."

• McLeish also emphasised Mullen is being supported by the club and his family following his injury and the subsequent abuse after the cup exit: "Ryan's family, the support that he's had from his team-mates, from the club, the people who see him daily in daily life, he knows he's got that support from us. That's the bit that matters."

• On Mullen's injury, McLeish says: "Even within the game we knew it was a bad one… I would have taken that decision out his hands anyway. He said he couldn't kick, that he was feeling something. He's now had the unfortunate news that he's going to need surgery. We just have to rally round him and support him."

• St Johnstone's Ross Sinclair has been signed on a seven-day emergency loan, with McLeish saying: "We're really comfortable with the goalkeeping situation now. Bringing Ross in is a massive help that he has Premiership experience. We know he's a strong goalkeeper. Whatever decision we go with over the next couple of games, we're comfortable with either Grant [Tamosevicius] or Ross in goals for us."

• Shamal George "should" be back before the end of the season and is no longer wearing his protective boot.

• McLeish says the players need to have a "short memory" about their semi-final thumping by Celtic as they have a massive game in their relegation fight this weekend. He adds: "We've got a massive run of games going into the split. They had a day off and then we came back in and reset, and reset really well throughout the week."

• Despite succumbing to Celtic in extra time, McLeish says there are still positives for his side to build upon as they fight for their top-flight status: "There are so many positives over not just the last two games, but the five games that I've taken in charge of. I'm so happy with so many parts of it."

• On their match with Livingston, and the chance to potentially move five points clear of the relegation play-off spot, McLeish says: "It's in our own hands. If we take care of our games then we can pull ourselves out of this situation."

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• St Mirren have lost just one of their past 16 Scottish Premiership meetings with Livingston (W7 D8), going down 1-0 away from home in February 2024.

• Livingston won their first-ever Premiership visit to St Mirren 2-0 in August 2018, but have since failed to win 10 such trips in the competition (D4 L6), losing their past four in a row and failing to score in their latest three.

• Depending on Kilmarnock's result at Aberdeen, Livingston could be relegated this weekend should they fail to beat St Mirren. Since the Premiership rebranded in 2013, they would be only the second newly-promoted side to be relegated from the division, after Dundee in 2021-22.

• St Mirren haven't won their first game after the Premiership split in any of their past five seasons (D1 L4), although their last win on matchday 34 in the competition came against Livingston in 2018-19 (3-1).

• Livingston have dropped 25 points from winning positions in the Premiership this season; since the competition's rebrand in 2013, the record in a single campaign is 28 by Hamilton in 2017-18 and Dundee in 2024-25.

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St Mirren have signed St Johnstone goalkeeper Ross Sinclair on a seven-day emergency loan.

First-choice Shamal George is already out injured, while back-up Ryan Mullen - who gifted the opening goal - was forced off in the first half of Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Celtic and will now miss at least three months with a torn thigh muscle that requires surgery.

Sinclair, 24, has not featured for Championship winners St Johnstone this season, but made 10 appearances in the Premiership last term.

He is likely to make his debut against St Mirren on Saturday.

We asked for your views on which St Mirren player has failed to live up to expectations this season.

Here's what some of you said:

Stuart: Despite initial promise, Killian Phillips now just seems to be racing round the park, lunging into tackles and getting either booked or injured. Then too exhausted to contribute anything useful.

Stewart: I looked forward to Phillips having done better, including scoring a few more goals. Maybe he will bag a few more next term.

Ted: My biggest disappointment is Conor McMenamin. He hasn't been able to kick on from last season. Okay, he had a few injuries but overall has struggled.

St Mirren hope to arrange an emergency loan for St Johnstone goalkeeper Ross Sinclair following injuries to Shamal George and Ryan Mullen. (Scottish Sun), external

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St Mirren goalkeeper Ryan Mullen has vowed to come back stronger after his "devastating" Scottish Cup semi-final ended after 14 minutes with a mistake and a torn quad muscle.

Deputising for the injured Shamal George, Mullen's delay in clearing the ball gifted Celtic's Daizen Maeda a first-minute goal before he was forced off after 14 minutes.

St Mirren managed to battle back from 2-0 down to force extra-time with 17-year-old Grant Tamosevicius in goal before losing 6-2 in extra-time.

Mullen posted on social media platform X that he was left devastasted on what was the biggest game of his career.

"It was even harder to pluck up the courage to walk off the pitch, but ultimately the team must come first," he wrote.

"The mistake and the pain were both something I could handle, but putting the team at risk didn't sit right with me."

Mullen, 24, thanked his family, friends, and team-mates for their support and praised Tamosevicius's display.

"Surgery is next, and then a long road back," the goalkeeper added.

"I've been at rock bottom and worked my way up from there - this isn't that situation.

"It's a privilege and an honour to be where I'm at right now, and I know exactly what it takes to get back to where I see myself going."

Last week we asked for your St Mirren player of the year - and Alex Gogic was the standout.

Now we want to know the Buddies player who has been the biggest disappointment this season.

It could be a new signing who has underwhelmed or an existing squad member who has failed to kick on.

Share your thoughts here.

Mark Jardine
Fan writer

St Mirren's unlikely run to the penultimate stage of a second cup competition in a season, all while toiling on league duty, kept dreams alive of something spectacular until almost the very end.

Celtic's four-goal blitz in six extra time minutes delivered a scoreline that will tell one tale, and justifiably so, but the conclusion from a Saints perspective has yet to be written.

In a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style, there are many paths this performance and result may lead down. Glasses can be half full, or half empty, or angrily tossed across a dressing room during a play-off.

Mika Mandron, nearly, had his finest hour in a Saints jersey. His first goal was a sublimely-placed header, earned by the kind of movement that defines his reign as the club's number nine.

Denied his guaranteed cup final start by illness, knocked down by a calamitous first half of defensive error and injury, Mandron grabbed the occasion by the collar in the second half and had his say.

Burying his equalising volley beyond Viljami Sinisalo and darting for the bedlam of Hampden's South Stand, the Frenchman with Scottish ties looked very much at home in the national stadium.

In an optimistic world, the Saints leading man takes this evidence of standing up when it counts and runs riot for the five remaining league fixtures that will decide his club's immediate future.

Grant Tamosevicius, born the week after Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for President, started this month as an academy keeper fourth in the queue for time between the Buddies' sticks.

Within 15 minutes of Sunday's semi-final, he was thrust into senior action for the first time in front of a national audience and packed crowd. Celtic's third goal aside, where the youngster was only as caught out by the cross as the two experienced centre-halves in front of him, Tamosevicius held his own.

With Shamal George visibly injured in the stands, Ryan Mullen now awaiting results and Peter Urminsky blocked by both loan arrangement and his own injury nightmare, the debutant's unexpected starring role may yet continue and with the stakes only increasing.

For Craig McLeish, the challenge is now single-minded and straightforward: Keep St Mirren in the top division.

The interim has a choice of tone to make and all indications are he has forged ahead with the positives. A side that no one backed, that injury decimated and that calamity befell, pushed Scotland's richest side to the brink of a second Hampden defeat in four months.

It is hard to legislate for the kind of unfortunate error and injury that plunged the Saints into chaos early on Sunday, or for the extra-time collapse of a side on their last legs and altered to chase an equaliser at all costs.

What can be taken from his side's showing are the resilience, grit, confidence and refusal to die that kept cup double dreams alive until the very last.

This is a St Mirren team that believe in their ability, in their mental fortitude and in the direction they have been asked to take.

This is a side built to take chances, pass with courage and change games on their own terms. Frankly, after four years of doing their best work in the table-topping games where possession was an alien concept, this is a team now drilled to want the ball and be masters of their own fate.

This season's story already had the momentous high of second act silverware, with the scene now set for third act redemption too.

Mark Jardine can be found at Misery Hunters, external

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Alex Gogic hailed teenage goalkeeper Grant Tamosevicius for a "special" St Mirren debut in Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic.

The 17-year-old was a first-half replacement for Ryan Mullen, who was standing in for Shamal George before picking up an injury of his own in the 6-2 loss.

Gogic criticised the "disgraceful" and "disgusting" abuse Mullen, who made an error for Daizen Maeda's opener, received from his own fans.

And the 32-year-old defender praised young Tamosevicius for the way he dealt with being thrown into the intense Hampden occasion.

St Mirren fought back from two down to take the contest beyond the 90 minutes, but the Paisley side could not prevent a four-goal blitz from Celtic early in extra time.

"For Grant it was a special moment," Gogic said. "I just told him when he comes in, just enjoy every second, because you never know if you will ever come back.

"I just told him, if you have nerves, just relax, enjoy every second, it doesn't matter if you make a mistake, just enjoy every second of it, because you never know.

"I'm 32 and you don't come here often, so I said enjoy it, take it in and enjoy every moment.

"It's special, the boys were over at him and especially the fans, and he did brilliant, some good saves."

Ray Bradshaw will be joined by fans up and down the country on Monday for This Is Fans Only to discuss the weekend's biggest points.

Supporters will come on live and viewers will get the chance to join in on the debate, as well.

The show will be broadcast live on the BBC Sport Scottish Football YouTube channel at 18:00 BST.

To make sure you don't miss any bespoke video content, make sure to subscribe to the channel HERE, external.

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Livingston defender Cammy Kerr has been impressed by St Mirren's performances under interim manager Craig McLeish and saw enough at Hampden to think the Buddies will steer clear of the relegation battle.

McLeish's side took Celtic to extra time in Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final after Mikael Mandron's second-half double levelled the tie.

However, they then shipped four goals in extra time as dreams of a cup double this season came to an end.

"They have certainly been a different outfit [under McLeish]," Kerr told the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.

"I know his assistant Stuart Taylor from his time at Dundee.

"McLeish is a fresh coach with new ideas and he'll be wanting to make his stamp on the team for going forward.

"I believe it's to the end of the season he's got it, but then he'll be wanting to do his absolute best to make sure he's in with a shout of getting the job on a longer basis.

"St Mirren were good value, but they just ran out of steam.

"They are a strong team and I think in the coming weeks in the split they are a team that will be OK."

We asked for your views after St Mirren were eliminated in the Scottish Cup semi-finals in a bonkers 6-2 defeat to Celtic.

Here's what some of you had to say:

Pauline: To bring it back to 2-2 was magnificent. Celtic then showed they have better quality, but we certainly gave them a game and I am extremely proud of my team and especially our 17-year-old goalkeeper. What a baptism of fire that was, but he acquitted himself very well. Well done, lads - now on to the league.

Peter: Nervy start to the game, then in the second half we came back and forced extra time. On come multi-million-pound subs for them and it's game over. The Saints gave a very good account of themselves and we look forward to battling for league safety.

John: Huge blunder by Ryan Mullen and in my opinion he shouldn't play again. Well done to the young Grant Tamosevicius on his debut. Everyone was very nervy in the first half. Great spirit to come back in the second before being unfortunately outclassed in the end.

Cameron: We may have lost four quick goals in extra time, but the team did the best it could and pushed the most expensive team in the country to their fragile best. The last-minute equaliser was priceless - as a Buddie it put the Celtic crowd into silent mode. And a mad six minutes and millions of pounds' worth of players finally paid off! Still proud to be a Buddie.

St Mirren lost in the Scottish Cup semi-finals after a thrilling, eight-goal epic at Hampden was eventually settled by a strong Celtic spell in extra time.

MATCH REPORT

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St Mirren manager Craig McLeish: "I'm so proud of the group and how they performed. To come back from the set-backs that we had early on in the game like losing a goalkeeper early on, losing the goal in the manner in which we did early on, to fight back from that and the fans pulled us through.

"Second-half performance was up there with the best since I've been in charge of the group. We thought we were in a really good place going into extra time. We made some changes that probably helped us get back into the game. We end up with a lot of attacking players on the pitch.

"We change our shape as well so taking those risks help us get to extra time and then they maybe expose us a little bit there, the quality that Celtic bring on the pitch then takes its toll and they hurt us.

"It's maybe a wee bit of naivety on my part with the way we finished the 90 minutes and the message was to keep going. We were trying not to be reckless with it but we thought we were in a good place. There's maybe bits that I need to look back on.

"I'm not going to be critical of our group and our players at all. I'm probably first and foremost, I'm more critical of myself. The score line looks really sore. I don't think we deserved that score line.

"We have to retain our status in the league. There has to be positives that we take. We can't just ignore negatives. We've got a massive five games, we're fighting for survival, we know that, the group knows that."

McLeish addressed goalkeeper Ryan Mullen's first-half injury withdrawal after his error had led to Daizen Maeda's opener for Celtic.

"Ryan's a professional, he'll deal with that well," said McLeish.

"He kind of kicked the ground and then got robbed of the ball and he's ended up kind of pulling his thigh muscle."

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Liam McLeod
BBC Sport Scotland Commentator

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• This is the third time in four seasons Celtic and St Mirren have met in the Scottish Cup. Celtic have won the past four meetings between the clubs in this competition.

• St Mirren's last Scottish Cup win over Celtic was in the 2009 quarter-finals when Billy Mehmet's penalty gave them a 1-0 win in Paisley.

• This weekend is the Buddies' first Scottish Cup semi-final meeting since 1984, when Celtic won 2-1 before going on to lose to Aberdeen in the final.

• St Mirren's 3-1 victory over Celtic in the League Cup final this season was one of only three wins for the Paisley side in the past 36 meetings across all competitions.

• Celtic, who have contested 61 of the 139 Scottish Cup finals, are aiming to win the trophy for the 43rd time, which would be nine more than the next best, Rangers.

• Before last season's defeat by Aberdeen, Celtic had won 11 successive Scottish Cup final appearances since Rangers beat them in the 2002 showpiece.

• Martin O'Neill won the Scottish Cup three times - 2001, 2004 and 2005 - in his five-year spell as Celtic manager. His last game in that tenure was the 2005 final over Dundee United in 2005, when Alan Thompson scored the only goal – it came the week after 'Helicopter Sunday', when they were beaten 2-1 late on by Motherwell to cost them the title on the final day.

• St Mirren are attempting to reach a seventh Scottish Cup final and are three-time winners, most recently in 1987, when Ian Ferguson's goal beat Dundee United 1-0 in extra time – it was the last time in a Scottish Cup final when all the players and both managers were Scottish.

Samuel Ukah
BBC Sport Scotland

Fourth round: Livingston 1-1 St Mirren (St Mirren win 4-3 on on pens, 17 Jan)

St Mirren began their Scottish Cup run in dramatic fashion as they edged out top-flight rivals Livingston on penalties.

Roland Idowu opened the scoring for the Buddies after just four minutes, but Scott Arfield's first goal for Livi levelled moments later.

Jeremy Bokila and Tete Yengi both missed in the shootout, allowing Malik Dijksteel to win the tie for the Paisley team.

Fifth round: Airdrieonians 1-2 St Mirren (aet, 6 Feb)

Manchester United loanee Jacob Devaney struck first for St Mirren - opening his account with a beautifully curled effort into the top corner.

It wasn't plain sailing for the Premiership side, though, as Championship strugglers Airdrieonians piled on the pressure. Their efforts were rewarded in the 66th minute as Euan Henderson finished off a team move for his 17th goal of the season.

The Buddies avoided their second penalty shootout of the competition after Shamal George's extra-time goal kick bounced into the penalty area for Idowu to rifle home the winner.

Quarter-finals: St Mirren 2-1 Partick Thistle (8 Mar)

Two first-half goals were enough to earn St Mirren a Hampden place for a second time this season.

The Buddies were awarded a penalty when Keanu Baccus' cross struck the arm of Robbie Crawford. Dan Nlundulu coolly dispatched, sending Josh Clarke the wrong way.

Nlundulu turned provider for the second as he laid the ball to Jake Young. The January signing powered past Clarke just before half-time.

Thistle pulled one back when Ben Stanway superbly volleyed home Patrick Reading's corner. However, it wasn't enough to prevent the Saints marching on.

Martin Dowden
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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St Mirren captain Mark O'Hara insists he has unfinished business in cup competition as he chases a dream double this season.

O'Hara was cruelly sidelined by injury for Saints' League Cup win over Celtic at Hampden in December, forced to take a place on the bench without featuring.

Now the midfielder is eager to help stun Celtic in Sunday's last-four showdown to ensure he can play his part on the pitch in the Scottish Cup final.

"It was kind of bittersweet," he said, reflecting on their League Cup success.

"Obviously, what an achievement for the club, and to be a part of that was amazing. Part of me, selfishly, felt it would have been nice to be playing.

"It does feel a bit like unfinished business and it would be good to win a cup with full involvement and playing in a final. I've got a bit of unfinished business, I feel, on that front.

"The league is obviously a big focus just now and we're down where we don't want to be. But we've got a real chance to make a successful season and to do a cup double, which I think would be the stuff of dreams and the stuff of legends."

St Mirren have run Celtic close this season in their league meetings, losing narrowly at Parkhead last weekend by a single goal.

"It's always been close over the last few years," O'Hara said.

"We need to be confident. We've beaten them at Hampden already this season and our performance last week, especially the second half, has proved we can match them.

"We're confident we've got enough in the building to go and cause an upset.

"It doesn't come around often. So to have the opportunity again is special and it's something we don't want to let go.

"I went so long in my career without being at Hampden and to be there on two different occasions in one season is definitely special. We won't be taking it for granted, that's for sure."