Oran Kearney has said that he expects to be busy during the January transfer window, drafting in new recruits and offloading unhappy players.

St Mirren's defeat at Kilmarnock on Saturday left them going into the winter break in 11th place in the league. Since his appointment in early September, Kearney has struggled for results and has made it clear that he intends to make major changes to the group of players he inherited from Alan Stubbs.

He said: "We've got a squad of 28 in inverted commas, but at this point in time we've offloaded a couple already.

"There's a few gone back down to England to look for clubs and we're carrying about eight injuries.

"I don't need unhappy players here. For the fight we're going to enter into in the second part of the season we're going to need players who are ready to go.

"I expect to do business the whole window so it's going to be frantic."

Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke saw his side move to just one point behind leaders Celtic with the win over the Buddies and he sees no need to make drastic changes to a team that's continuing to exceed expectations. However, he sent out a warning to clubs eyeing up his key players, saying that there was no need for him to part with anyone in January.

"How do you improve this group with no money?" he asked. "They will need to be very good players to break into this team. The biggest part for me in January will be keeping this group together.

"The board assure me that we don't need to sell anyone in January. If we can do that then we'll have a go at the second half of the season and see how many points we can get."