Motherwell welcome bottom side St Mirren to Fir Park for a Scottish Premiership clash on Saturday afternoon, with the Steelmen looking to bounce back from a heavy defeat to Hibernian last weekend.
The Buddies travel after a week when the club reacted angrily to a decision by an SPFL tribunal to award them a suspended £4,000 fine and two defeats in the wake of a coronavirus outbreak at the club earlier this season.
Match preview
© Reuters
Motherwell were blown away last weekend in that 3-0 defeat to Hibs, with the Edinburgh side scoring all their goals after half time.
Well manager Stephen Robinson will be concerned that his team have now not won in the league since a 2-0 victory at Livingston at the end of October.
The defeat to Hibs came on the back of two consecutive games against St Johnstone, in the League Cup and the Premiership, both of which the Steelmen failed to win.
The Perth Saints knocked The Well out of the League Cup with a 2-1 win at Fir Park, a result that came a week after a 1-1 draw at McDiarmid Park in the league.
Motherwell are currently in fifth place in the table, seven points behind fourth-placed Aberdeen and a point ahead of sixth-placed Dundee United.
They were able to climb to fifth after being awarded two victories by the SPFL board due to weekend opponents St Mirren and Kilmarnock calling off games in October due to a coronavirus outbreak.
© Reuters
That decision to award 'Well a walkover win caused anger in Paisley, with the Buddies asserting this week that they would be appealing the judgement, which also handed a walkover win to Hamilton Academical.
St Mirren called off the games after manager Jim Goodwin did not have enough players available to name a side, due to a coronavirus outbreak at the club.
The Paisley Saints had been hoping that the two games could be played at a later date, but the SPFL have decided that that cannot happen, particularly as the club were held at fault for breaching a number of regulations relating to COVID-19.
Whether that situation affects the team's performance on the park remains to be seen, but the Buddies are in pretty good form at the moment, having not lost in eight games in all competitions.
They are also unbeaten in their last three Premiership matches, with them being a little unfortunate to draw 1-1 at home to Aberdeen last week. A week previously, they had knocked the Dons out of the League Cup, winning 2-1 at St Mirren Park.
Despite their good form, Goodwin's team remain at the foot of the league table, a point behind 11th-placed Ross County.
Motherwell Scottish Premiership form: LWWLDL
Motherwell form (all competitions): WWLDLL
St Mirren Scottish Premiership form: LLLDWD
St Mirren form (all competitions): DDWWWD
Team News
© Reuters
Jordan Archer looks set to continue in goal for Motherwell after making his debut for the Steelmen in last weekend's defeat to Hibs.
Trevor Carson continues to recover from injury, but Archer could face competition for the spot between the sticks from Aaron Chapman.
Liam Donnelly remains a long-term absentee as he continues his recovery from knee surgery, while Charles Dunne is not yet ready to return after undergoing surgery on a groin injury earlier this year.
St Mirren are heading into the weekend with a clean bill of health and no suspensions, giving Jim Goodwin a full squad from which to pick.
Defender Connor McCarthy is currently on four yellow cards, however, so he will be suspended if he picks up another card on Saturday.
Motherwell possible starting lineup:
Archer; O'Donnell, Mugabi, Gallagher, McGinley; O'Hara, Campbell, Polworth; Long, Watt, Lang
St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Alnwick; Fraser, McCarthy, Shaughnessy, Tait; Connolly, McGrath, Doyle-Hayes, Erhahon, Durmus; Obika
We say: Motherwell 1-1 St Mirren
We think that a draw looks the most likely result in Lanarkshire on Saturday, with 1-1 looking a probable scoreline.
St Mirren are a hard team to beat these days, and would have beaten Aberdeen last week but for a desperate last-minute goalline clearance from the Dons. The Saints do struggle to score enough goals to finish teams off, however, and they are away from home on Saturday.
Motherwell will want to be more resilient after folding in the second half of last week's game with Hibs, but don't possess sufficient quality or momentum currently to puncture the Buddies' unbeaten run.
Top betting tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Motherwell win with a probability of 45.47%. A win for St Mirren had a probability of 29.14% and a draw had a probability of 25.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Motherwell win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.32%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.19%) and 2-0 (7.86%). The likeliest St Mirren win was 0-1 (7.91%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.05%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 7.9% likelihood.
