St Mirren slipped to third in the Scottish Premiership behind hosts Rangers thanks to Bojan Miovski's stoppage-time winner at Ibrox.
Manager Craig McLeish was left "proud" of his side's performance, but what do the fans think?
Image source, SNSSt Mirren manager Craig McLeish tells BBC Scotland he is "so proud of the group" despite their 1-0 defeat by Rangers.
"Proud of their performance and how brave we were," he said.
"We had to weather some storms in the first half and Chappie's [Jacob Chapman] had to make some great saves, but we have to defend like that if we want to achieve anything.
"I was probably more disappointed after the cup game as we didn't show the best version of ourselves, but we were excellent in the second half.
"The boys have set standards and keep raising the bar.
"There's disappointment because you come so close to getting a point, but our season can't be defined by picking up a point at Ibrox.
"We have to pick up points elsewhere. If we continue to play with that bravery, I am sure we will do that."
As for Fraser Taylor's second-half miss that could have given St Mirren the lead before Bojan Miovski scored Rangers' stoppage-time winner, McLeish added: "He was magnificent tonight. He said that'll keep him up for a few nights that he's missed it.
"But he gets there, he puts himself in that position, a fantastic run through. He was brilliant all night and he's been great since he's come into the team.
"Those bits happen. It will be someone else next week."
Rangers boss Derek McInnes has never lost as a manager at home to St Mirren in the top flight, winning 10 and drawing seven of 17 such games across spells with St Johnstone, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and Hearts.
St Mirren have won three consecutive away games in the Scottish Premiership, the first time they have done so in the top flight since May 2007 (also three in a row).
Rangers have won 25 of their past 28 home games against St Mirren in all competitions (D2 L1), including 16 of their latest 17 (L1 – 2-0 in February 2025).
St Mirren have lost three successive meetings with Rangers in all competitions, including a 5-1 League Cup defeat this season, after having been unbeaten in four against the Ibrox side beforehand (W2 D2).
Rangers have only lost one of their past 13 midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) league games (W9 D3), although that was their last at home, a 2-1 defeat to Hibernian in May.
Liam McLeod
BBC Sport Scotland Commentator
On Saturday, before his team's top-of-the-table clash with Celtic, I asked St Mirren manager Craig McLeish how easy it has been to implement the style of football that is enthralling the Paisley club's supporters amid their then unbeaten start to the league season.
"It's been quite straightforward," was the reply.
The man who led the Saints youth team under Aberdeen boss Stephen Robinson has produced a side that plays an exciting, fast-paced brand of football with a clear identity already. Eight new signings started the narrow defeat to the champions as well as Fraser Taylor, who was on loan at Partick Thistle last season.
Contrast that with Robinson's fortunes so far in the north east and Aberdeen's turgid goalless draw at home to Kilmarnock. It is stark.
Aberdeen were often slow and ponderous and were fortunate to take a point, with goalkeeper Marius Muller pulling off several excellent saves to keep Killie out.
The reaction from the Dons support at half-time and full-time was there for all to hear and wasn't lost on Robinson, who must look at their three pre-international window fixtures with trepidation.
They have a rematch in Ayrshire in the League Cup quarter-finals on Saturday evening, a game that was always going to be one of the most important in Aberdeen's season but now carries extra significance and pressure.
The Dons now face three away games against top-flight opponents with trips to Motherwell and Hibernian, following the cup tie, in the Premiership.
They haven't beaten a top-flight club away from home since 6 December last year and have only scored six goals in that abysmal run.
When Robinson was appointed during a sequence of one win in 13 at St Mirren, chairman Dave Cormack said: "There is a strong desire to re-establish a clear identity for our club, to become harder to play against and restore competitiveness in our matches."
The Northern Irishman's former youth coach has proven that is possible.
Image source, SNSRangers striker Lawrence Shankland faces up to four months out with a hamstring tear. He joins Youssef Chermiti (knee) and Tuur Rommens (groin) on the sidelines.
Daisuke Yokota will have a scan on a groin problem and is expected to miss out, Kosta Nedeljkovic has a foot issue and will be assessed, while Badredine Bouanani could make his debut.
St Mirren midfielder Samuel Ramos is a doubt with a hamstring problem. Killian Phillips (shin), Liam Donnelly (abductor), Malik Dijksteel (hamstring), Keanu Baccus (Achilles) and Jonah Ayunga (knee) remain out.
Sheelagh McLaren
BBC Scotland
Image source, SNSCraig McLeish has marked his early St Mirren tenure by winning the Scottish Premiership manager of the month award for August.
The Buddies picked up seven out of nine available points last month.
An opening-day 2-0 win at Falkirk was followed by a 1-0 victory at home to St Johnstone before a thrilling 3-3 draw with Motherwell.
McLeish, who was appointed on a three-year deal in June after steering the Buddies to survival as interim boss, said: "My name is on it but it's a club award.
"I'm delighted the players and staff get recognition for the work that we've put in.
"I'm not surprised it's come together so quickly - I get that from the outside it might look like that. There's an internal belief about what we're doing and the work we can do on the pitch.
"It could have been even better and we were close to it being even better. But we also recognise there's such small margins that we could be sitting in a much worse position."
St Mirren have 10 points from their opening five league fixtures and travel to face Rangers on Wednesday (19:45 BST).
Sheelagh McLaren
BBC Scotland
Image source, SNSSt Mirren manager Craig McLeish has addressed the media before Wednesday evening's Scottish Premiership trip to face Rangers.
Here are the main points.
McLeish, who was appointed permanent Buddies boss in June, is "not surprised it's come together so quickly" after his picked up 10 points in August.
"I get that from the outside it might look like that," McLeish adds. "There's an internal belief about what we're doing and the work we can do on the pitch."
He expects "tough moments throughout the season but it's about sticking together".
Having lost 5-1 at Ibrox in the League Cup this season, McLeish says his team "need to be secure in what we're doing in possession" on Wednesday night.
"We have to go there and show bravery like we did against Celtic," McLeish says in reference to Saturday evening's 2-1 home league defeat.
He adds: "I am really happy with where we're at, but I still think there's so much more to come from the group."
On whether there is a fear factor going to Ibrox, the Buddies boss says he is "trying to take fear away in any game".
With captain Lawrence Shankland missing for Rangers, St Mirren "have other strikers we have to prepare for" with Ryan Naderi having "caused us a few problems last time", says McLeish.
Team news: Killian Phillips is making his way back from a shin injury with a view to returning for the Dundee United game on 19 September.
Fellow midfielder Liam Donnelly will be back training next week as he recovers from an abductor problem. Samuel Ramos has a hamstring issue and will be monitored. Malik Dijksteel (hamstring), Keanu Baccus (Achilles) and Jonah Ayunga (ACL) remain out.
Mark Jardine
Fan writer
Celtic were in town at the weekend, which generally means a couple of things in the past few years of being a Saints fan.
Firstly, on what feels like the majority of occasions, the Buddies can be proud of their efforts despite earning none of the points.
It is a frustrating habit to have established, as it feels like an endorsement of diddy club status and accepting a pat on the head. However, on Saturday night, there is no denying the truth in the assessment.
Many questioned whether Craig McLeish would take lessons from the scoreline at Ibrox on League Cup duty and adopt a more pragmatic, defensively-minded approach.
Or would he double down on this season's commitment to playing out from the back, inviting the press, and focusing on chance creation above all else. The answer was decidedly the latter - and his side repaid that faith.
There were many things to be proud of. Nikolas Agrafiotis opening his account in black and white with a penalty that might still have been moving had the net not stopped it.
Ryan Carr, once again, displaying a level of quality that makes you wonder how he ended up here and not in some exotic setting.
Jacob Chapman's saves, passing ability and composure that would have some checking his blood pressure. Calvin Ramsay marauds as only he marauds, yet also shows remarkable restraint on his first-half yellow.
Ismeal Kabia increasingly looks like a winger that will give the league's right-backs sleepless Friday nights all season long.
On the night, a Luke Thomas tap-in might have earned the Saints what their endeavour deserved. But, in it was not tapped and points were not shared.
Secondly, the aftermath online among many will focus more on the perceived crime of having a smattering of empty seats in the home end than any genuine interest in what occurred on the pitch.
If there was any reasonable conversation to be had about why it's correct not to unseat season-ticket holders to hand over a larger away allocation, then I'm sure it would be had.
Instead, the usual chorus of "locking out fans while there are empty seats in the home end" rings out over 1,000 seats across three home stands - despite, as far as I'm aware, no similar general sale being available to Aberdeen fans or otherwise for the 1,500 tickets presumably unsold at Celtic Park the previous Wednesday.
A return to Ibrox on Wednesday night awaits, offering a chance to prove that five conceded in the cup was not a true reflection of this team and also some respite from having to answer Glaswegian questions about a one-away stand policy that has been universally popular with the club's fans and accountant alike.
Watch all the highlights from Celtic's narrow 2-1 victory at St Mirren, including two disallowed goals for the visitors. Available to UK users only.
St Mirren fans, we asked for your views after Sunday's narrow defeat by Celtic.
Here's what some of you said:
William: I thought Saints were terrific and deserved a draw. Before the season start, I and many others didn't want Craig McLeish to be St Mirren boss but this man has proved us wrong. He has put together a well knitted side. It's very early days but the league table has us dreaming of a European run. What odds on us beating a not-so-formidable Rangers at Ibrox on Wednesday?
Jimbo: Proud of the Buddies. Played some fantastic football and should have got at least an equaliser. A very young team and inexperience shows at times but the effort they are putting in deserves something. We can only get better with this attitude. A lot of us fans are eating humble pie and its a way to go but boy this fella McLeish is getting us excited at the prospects opening up ahead if we continue in this vain.
Simon: A good performance despite losing. We were exposed on the break, and were guilty of giving the ball away cheaply on occasion. Plenty of reasons for optimism though, and the football is as entertaining as anything we've seen in decades at St Mirren.
John: Another very good performance We had some good chances to take a point and can consider ourselves very unlucky. Keep this up and we'll be nearer the top than the bottom. I can't understand why the ref blew for full-time when Saints were on an attacking phase so close to the Celtic goal, I'm sure it wouldn't have happened at the other end. Well done Saints, proud of you.
Champions Celtic made it five Scottish Premiership wins out of five and consigned St Mirren to a season's first league defeat after coming from behind in Paisley.
Image source, SNSSt Mirren manager Craig McLeish: "I'm proud of the players and the effort they gave and what they tried to do throughout the game. The goals that we lose are probably disappointing from our point of view but Celtic have other chances in the game.
"We showed really good character. They never give up, they never give in. We then create chances, we have some of our best spells of play after we go 2-1 down. We're probably unlucky not to nick an equaliser.
"We're trying to improve every single week, every single game. You're not going to come up against that type of test very often and we have to make sure that we use it and we learn from it and we keep building on what we're doing it."
Image source, SNSSt Mirren midfielder Killian Phillips remains out with a shin injury but will return to training on the grass on Monday, while Liam Donnelly (abductor) and Malik Dijksteel (hamstring) are also out.
Celtic could include new signings Joel van den Berg and Jordan Lotomba, but Landon Emenalo is not ready.
Kasper Hogh and Kieran Tierney remain out with thigh strains, while Callum Osmand (ankle) is also absent and Jota is still working his way back from a long-term knee injury.
Image source, SNSCamilo Durán has scored six goals in seven appearances for Celtic in all competitions, including three in his last two Scottish Premiership matches. The Colombian is averaging 97 minutes-per-goal for Celtic in all competitions.
Benjamin Nygren has five goal involvements in Celtic's four Scottish Premiership games this season, scoring three and assisting two. However, the Swede has scored or assisted against 10 of the 11 sides he has faced in the competition, failing to do so only against St. Mirren (three games).
Under Martin O'Neill, Celtic have won all seven of their games against St. Mirren in all competitions by an aggregate score of 16-2. In the club's history, the only managers to face a specific opponent more while winning 100% of meetings are Jock Stein (11/11 v Raith Rovers), Brendan Rodgers (9/9 v Hamilton Academical), and Ange Postecoglou (8/8 v Ross County).
Celtic have won each of their last 11 league games, including all four so far this season. Indeed, since the start of last season, the Hoops have won 23 of their 27 league matches under Martin O'Neill (D2 L2), averaging 2.63 points-per-game with the Northern Irishman in this time.
St. Mirren have won four of their last six league matches (D2), more than their previous 20 before this (W3 D4 L13).
When a side starting the day second in the table has played at home to the side starting the day top in the Scottish Premiership, the team in second has won on three of the last five occasions (D1 L1), more than the previous nine beforehand (W2 D3 L4).
Celtic have won each of their last five league visits to St. Mirren by an aggregate score of 17-3.
St. Mirren have lost 12 of their last 14 league games against Celtic (D2) since a 2-0 victory in September 2022.
Image source, SNSCraig McLeish hopes St Mirren's start to the season continues to be "fun" as the Paisley side prepare to welcome Scottish Premiership champions and leaders Celtic on Saturday (20:00 BST).
The Buddies have won three and drawn the other of their opening four Scottish Premiership fixtures, with their most recent result a 1-0 win at Kilmarnock on Wednesday.
"Really looking forward to it," McLeish said of Celtic's visit. "We're in the middle of a kind of four-game stretch right now so it's been good fun.
"First two results were decent, we are probably still a little bit disappointed we didn't come away with the result against Motherwell [in the 3-3 draw] and a really good result away to Kilmarnock.
"And now we've got the two big ones coming up now."
After Saturday evening's fixture, St Mirren travel to face Rangers in Wednesday's rearranged Premiership match.
"Throughout my coaching, I have always wanted it to be… maybe fun gets interpreted differently," McLeish commented.
"Ultimately, you have to win games and put points on the board but I have to enjoy it. I have to enjoy watching our football, I have to enjoy coaching how we're playing.
"It's massive that the boys come in here every day and look forward to it and we use that word a lot, it has to be enjoyable, it has to be fun. I think it has been. I've loved every minute of it. I'm enjoying what we're doing. I enjoy the process. The boys are enjoying it.
"I don't want people to think we're just really relaxed and carrying on with things, but it has to best to be fun to coach, it has to be fun to play and it has to be fun to watch and that's the kind of messages we've used consistently since we've taken over."
St Mirren finished second bottom last season and won the Premiership play-off final against second-tier Partick Thistle.
"Come the end of the season we will be more tended to look at the league table and kind of see how it's all gone," McLeish said.
"So, while we're talking about that it has to be fun and enjoyable, ultimately we have to win games. No point in us enjoying ourselves and saying, 'we're having a great time', but we're holding up the table'.
"It is a really good opportunity on Saturday against a really strong side. We know that we need to be at our absolute best and we need to hope that Celtic aren't at their best to come away with a positive result. But we'll throw everything at it."
Image source, SNSJalmaro Calvin has left St Mirren by mutual consent, the club have confirmed.
The forward penned a two-year deal last summer which was due to expire in the summer of 2027 with the club holding an option to extend by a further 12 months.
The 23-year-old joined the Buddies from Jamaican outfit Cavalier FC last summer and went on to make 11 appearances for the Paisley club, scoring one goal.
Three of those appearances came this term in the League Cup, as did his goal, but the winger hasn't been part of the squad for any Premiership game this season.
Image source, SNSSt Mirren manager Craig McLeish wants to see a homegrown player quota introduced to Scottish football.
The suggestion comes as the Scottish Football Association prepare to host discussions in St Andrews, which all 42 league clubs have been invited to attend, aimed at improving the prospects for homegrown talent in Scotland.
McLeish, who worked in St Mirren's academy and with the SFA as a development coach before taking on his role as Buddies boss, insists more youth involvement at club level will help the national team and improve the Scottish game overall.
"We have to put a quota in place for young players being involved in match day squads," McLeish said.
"Everything else they talk about might be good ideas, might need to rely on other people to make decisions on it. The only thing that's going to change is if we put the quotas in place.
"I've got the benefit in that I've come through the academy system here, worked with the youth national teams.
"I'm fed up of coaches, youth coaches, getting battered in this country, academies getting battered, youth national teams getting a bad rep.
"I've been part of it. We went away to Spain and beat them at under-16s, the under-17s have played against the likes of Italy and Portugal and competed against them. There's a lot of good work going on in this country.
"There is a lot of talented coaches, a lot of talented players but until we change the rules then it's always going to hit a brick wall at some point.
"You can go really extreme with it like Norway have. In Norway, I think 16 have to be homegrown, locally-trained, you can only have nine non-homegrown players in your matchday squad.
"I would go extreme with it. The argument will be that then it harms our clubs competing in Europe.
"But you only need to look at like Bodo/Glimt and progressing to like latter stages of the Champions League. They are able to do that with the restrictions that they've got in place.
"It's not going to happen overnight, it will take a bit of time and there might be a little bit of short-term pain, but you even see that we've got clubs going out of Europe right now with no restrictions in place.
"I think we all should strive to develop Scottish football as a whole and part of that is developing the national team and it's the only way I see any sort of difference being made."
St Mirren fans, we asked for your views after Wednesday night's win at Kilmarnock made it 10 points from four games for the Buddies.
Here's what some of you said:
Kieran: Saints were very comfortable in the first half and gritted it out for the win, just need to put games to bed to early and save the blood pressure of fans. Saints are a great watch just now and hopefully can just get better with confidence growing. It's good to see a decent squad depth for a change
Paul: Picking up 10 points in our opening four games is tremendous but without goalkeeper Jacob Chapman's two penalty saves it would be seven points so big shout out,
John: That first half performance was simply outstanding, a joy to watch. Second half a different game but we defended well and kept Killie at bay. Not a failure in the team, well done Saints.
Andy: A real good solid performance. First half we played some great possession football and should have been further ahead at half time. The second half we showed that we can defend but once we made the substitutions the shape of the team changed and we gave up possession too easily. Overall a great performance, hopefully we can keep it going.
Pauline: We are a team gelling, really happy with the way things are going and especially for Craig McLeish as he had his doubters when given the position, but I think he is quietly surprising everyone.
Douglas: A superb first half performance but the second half was poor. Never tested the Kilmarnock keeper once and only desperate defending kept Killie out. Show that second half display against Celtic and we will get taken apart. Show the first half display for 90 minutes and a win is on the cards.
Watch all the highlights as St Mirren continued their strong start to the season with a narrow victory against a struggling Kilmarnock side still searing for their first Premiership point. Available to UK users only.
Image source, SNSSt Mirren manager Craig McLeish: "Second half, our discipline and shape defensively... they didn't create clear cut chances that hurt us.
"But I want to play the way we did in the first half for 90 minutes. I know that's probably not realistic. There'll be times we have to suffer without the ball. We had to do that in the second half but we were solid defensively.
"The first half was great. It's what we want it to look like, played with real quality but disappointed we didn't get a goal to follow the first one.
"Someone just told me it's our first win here in over 10 years. Just delighted to get another three points.
"The boys are setting the standard and raising the bar every week, and we have to keep building on it. I want the second half performance to mirror the first half, but I have to accept sometimes we have to see games out.
"It's our third clean sheet of the season, delighted for Jacob Chapman and the back line."
Neil McCann was again left to rue Kilmarnock's defensive frailties as a home defeat by St Mirren left them without a point from their opening four Scottish Premiership matches of the campaign.
