St Mirren held to goalless draw by Motherwell in Paisley

St Mirren are still waiting for their first goal of the Premiership season after being held to a 0-0 draw at home to Motherwell.

The visitors were the better side for much of the opening hour before Stephen Robinson’s side, who lost 1-0 to Celtic in their opening game of the campaign, went on to dominate the latter stages without finding the net.

Keanu Baccus and Alex Gogic both went close to scoring, only to be denied by Well goalkeeper Calum Ward.

St Mirren made two changes from the team that played Celtic. Baccus went straight into the starting line-up after returning to the club on Thursday from Mansfield, while there was a debut for Miguel Freckleton. Fraser Taylor and Richard King dropped to the bench.

Motherwell also made two alterations following their draw with Rangers. In came Ibrahim Said and Stephen O’Donnell to replace Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and Liam Gordon.

Former Well midfielder Mark O’Hara had the first chance for St Mirren within the opening minute but sliced his half-volley wide.

Said almost marked his first Motherwell start with a goal, but keeper Shamal George did well to repel his shot and the danger was cleared.

Motherwell were looking the more dominant side midway through the first half, but Johnny Koutroumbis’ ambitious long-range effort flew well off target. He later hobbled off injured.

Tawanda Maswanhise came closer with a shot from the left that curled just wide as the visitors pushed for a half-time lead and Saints struggled to contain them.

The home side made two changes at half-time to try to regain a foothold in the contest, with Evan Mooney and Tunmise Sobowale replacing Roland Idowu and Jayden Richardson.

Motherwell keeper Ward was then a relieved man after his scuffed clearance went straight to Mooney. The substitute fed Mikael Mandron, but his shot was blocked and O’Hara could not tuck away the rebound.

At the other end Geroge did well to push away Callum Slattery’s dangerous free-kick that looked destined for the bottom corner.

St Mirren replied with Baccus teeing up Mooney, who stabbed his effort off target.

It was a much more even contest after the interval and Saints were unfortunate not to break the deadlock when Ward made a great save to keep out Gogic’s header from Conor McMenamin’s centre.

Baccus then burst into the box but could not get his driven effort on target from a tight angle.

Killian Phillips tried his luck with a low driven effort not long after, but Ward saved comfortably before stretching to keep out another late Baccus strike.