By Johnny Orr

St Mirren Youth Academy players Evan Mooney and Luke Kenny grabbed headlines after the Saint’s dramatic 3-2 away win against St Johnstone on Saturday. Center-back Kenny, 21, came on to make his first-team debut and put in a solid performance, and Mooney who celebrated his seventeenth birthday just last week scored his first-ever professional goal to inspire a Saints comeback.

Current youth team player Matthew Turner, 17, says first-team boss Stephen Robinson is having a positive impact on the younger players, he said: “In previous years the first-team gaffers haven’t trusted the younger lads but Stephen Robinson is different. Evan Mooney is training with the first team all the time and getting opportunities off the bench. There definitely is a pathway to first-team football and we’re given everything we need to get there it’s just about how we can take advantage of that.”

Matthew has been with the St Mirren Academy since he was five years old and thinks the club has an amazing setup “The academy is brilliant, it’s developed me as a player but also as a person. Small things like giving me confidence, telling me what to eat and drink, all wee things but they add up and make me a better player and person.”

The under-18s squad are in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Youth Cup and are currently in the top five in the league table. Matthew says that his manager Stephen McGinn has had a big impact on the squad since taking the role in the summer “Stephen and his coaches have honestly been great. They’ve changed so much about the place, the attitude, the atmosphere in the dressing room, I mean there’s nothing worse than trying to perform in a bad environment. The gaffer is obviously a well-known person in Scottish football and his experience is massively inspiring for us.”

First-team manager Stephen Robinson highlighted the importance of sending young players out on loan in an interview with the St Mirren media team earlier in the season, and it’s something Matthew would love to do, he said: “Going out on loan is a great opportunity to experience new challenges. At 18s you are very protected, and going on loan can give you that experience of the physicality needed to make it in the men’s game. It is something I would like to do but I’d need to have that chat with the club, my family, and my agent.”

The Saints have recently published their Impact Report 2024, where youth team success was one of the key areas of development. With the young Buddies performing well and making an impact on the senior squad the future looks bright for St Mirren and their emerging talent from the academy.