Latest news with #St Mirren
BBC News
20 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Celtic great McStay to unfurl title flag
Celtic great Paul McStay will unfurl the title flag at Parkhead on Sunday as Brendan Rodgers' side kick off their league season against St Scotland midfielder McStay won eight honours over the course of 16 years at Celtic, making almost 700 appearances for the Rodgers is expecting the 60-year-old to get "an incredible reception" when the champions' flag is raised at Celtic Park for a fourth straight season."Paul was a great player. He always gave you hope watching Celtic," Rodgers told Celtic's club website."You always felt that, in those tough times when Celtic maybe suffered a bit, he could produce that moment of magic."He was a brilliant player, a really humble guy. He will get an incredible reception and it will be amazing to see him again."
BBC News
20 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
St Mirren need to 'defy the odds' again in top-six bid
Stephen Robinson is targeting a fourth consecutive top-six finish with St Mirren this season as they attempt to "defy the odds" Buddies manager believes his side have "raised expectations" and praised his players and staff prior to their opening fixture against champions Celtic on Sunday."You've got to try and do it again. Out with Rangers and Celtic, we're the only team that have had three top-six finishes, that's a huge challenge for us now," said Robinson."The landscape is getting more and more difficult to do this. When you look at the investment into the bigger clubs in the country, in reality, they should all finish in the top six."But football's not played on paper and finance books and we have to upset the odds and be in a position that if somebody doesn't do their job, that is expected of them, that we're able to take advantage of that, which we've done the last three seasons."I have huge belief in the players. We've got a core of players who have done that over the last three years. Probably 14, 15 of them have been regularly involved in that and we believe we've added more quality, more pace and different options from the bench as well that perhaps we didn't have."You need a little bit of luck, you need a little bit of fortune to go your way and if it does, why not try and do it four years in a row?"It seems to be that we are expected to get top six and people are talking that we should be challenging for Europe."That certainly isn't based on the infrastructure or the finances of the football club. It's based on the players and that's credit to them."Credit to the staff, the support staff as well because we've got a very small support staff who do a lot of work in the background that people don't see."Together as a small team but a very good team, we believe we've raised the expectations and we need to do the same again, we need to defy the odds."
BBC News
15-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
'Key step forward' as St Mirren confirm player development partnerships
St Mirren have announced strategic partnerships with League Two side Dumbarton and Lowland League club Clydebank as part of the Scottish FA's new cooperation initiative was passed earlier this year to help improve player development in Scotland by providing more opportunities for young Mirren say the system allows them to "place a maximum of three players, who are eligible to play for Scotland and are under the age of 21, on a cooperation list". These players are then able to move freely between St Mirren, Dumbarton and part of the agreement, Buddies youngsters Carrick McEvoy, Thomas Falconer and Theo McCormick have all joined Dumbarton, while Billy Hutchison will link up with Mirren manager Stephen Robinson said: "I firmly believe in the loan system to develop our young players and something that hindered that previously was not being able to bring them back at certain stages or leaving yourself short in numbers."With the cooperation agreement, we are able to get them into men's football to develop under other coaches. Hopefully, we can also help the coaches and the clubs they are going to. It will be a great benefit for both parties."St Mirren chief operating officer Keith Lasley added: "As per the Scottish FA's transition report, it has been shown, as a country, that we need to try and produce more young footballers for the national team."From a club point of view, it's something we want to do as well. We see these cooperation agreements as a key step forward in allowing us to be more strategic in our planning and think long-term rather than what has been traditionally a short-term, reactive process."
BBC News
11-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
St Mirren 'want a special cup run' insists O'Hara
St Mirren are "more than capable" of reaching the latter stages of a cup competition and giving the fans "a special day out", says captain Mark O' the Buddies have enjoyed three top-six finishes in a row in the Scottish Premiership, they haven't got their hands on silverware since beating Hearts in the 2013 League Cup class of 2013 are "legends" in Paisley, and O'Hara wants to emulate their success."Obviously there was success before in the cup and the boys that played that day are legends here and that's what we want to achieve," O'Hara said as St Mirren prepare to kick-off their League Cup campaign against Arbroath on Saturday."We've had success with the top six and getting into Europe and things like that, but this group want a cup run."We want to be successful in the cup and winning a cup would be special."When you look in the stadium and see all the photos and the celebrations last time, and the town coming together, it's something that we're capable of and would like to give to the fans."We've spoken already and I think that's something that as a group and as a staff, we want to achieve – we want a cup run, we want to get to Hampden and want that day out and we're more than capable of doing it."So we just need to make sure that we approach these games right, firstly, and give ourselves the best chance we can."
