Falkirk travel to Perth to take on St Johnstone, looking to end their dismal run against the Saints.
These two sides have not met in a competitive fixture since July 2018, where St Johnstone ran out 1-0 winners at McDiarmid Park, courtesy of a first-half goal from Scougall. The meeting before that came in 2016, also at McDiarmid Park. Two first-half penalties from Swanson and a second-half goal from MacLean gave the Perth outfit a 3-0 win. In addition, Falkirk have failed to win a competitive match in this fixture in their last seven attempts, with their last win coming in April 2004. In that season (2004/05), Falkirk won all four of their meetings with the Saints.
St Johnstone come into this fixture off the back of a narrow 1-0 defeat against champions Celtic at McDiarmid Park. Despite the defeat, it was a tight contest, which they can take positives from, which has been a theme of their start to the league season. All of their six Premiership games have been decided by a singular goal, apart from their match at Dens Park at the start of the month, which finished 1-1.
Falkirk picked up their first three points of the 26/27 season in midweek, which doesn’t tell the full story on how their season has gone. The Bairns beat the Jambos 2-1, courtesy of an early goal from Krauhaus and a second-half strike from Eames.
St Johnstone have had a solid start to life back in the top flight, and Josh Fowler has been one of the standout performers. The striker netted nineteen times and provided two assists for Queen’s Park during the first half of the 2025/26 season before making the move to Perth, where he scored two in thirteen. However, so far in the Premiership, the 24-year-old has found the net four times and provided one assist in six Premiership matches.
Falkirk haven’t had many standout performers so far this season, but two who have had solid starts are Ryan Strain and Scott Bain. Strain, who spent the last two seasons with Dundee United, has offered a real threat going forward. The Australian has created thirteen chances so far, two of which leading to assists, which puts him joint second in the Premiership, only behind Celtic midfielder Benjamin Nygren, who has created twenty-one thus far.
Bain, who recently received a deserved Scotland National Team call-up, has prevented five goals so far this Premiership season, which puts him comfortably first, over one ahead of Kilmarnock keeper Max Stryjek.
St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari has confirmed that Jamie Gullan, Bozo Mikulic and Zach Mitchell are set to return on Saturday.
Valakari on his side’s defeat to Celtic:
“You play against the champions and big credit to them. That’s why they are the champions – they find their way to win these matches, even when it’s an even game.
“We created enough chances to get something. That’s the disappointment of the evening, that we could not score those. We were in the match the whole match.
“It is a performance, not a result. When we keep performing, just taking care of our performances, the results, they will come.”
Falkirk boss John McGlynn after his side’s home win against Hearts:
“They put so much work in there and played some excellent football and scored some good goals. I thought we were good in and out of possession.
“Absolutely delighted to get the monkey off the back, and I think that’ll kick us on now. It’s just getting that first win.
“We have been gradually getting better; the transfer window has closed, and we can just concentrate on our football, and we saw the fruits of that.”
“The teams above us not winning; it’s tightening up very quickly.”