TALKING ST MIRREN Ross: Kyle has the guile to make it to the very top

HOW St Mirren have thrived on going from a relegation battle last season to a promotion push this time around.

But one player who has particularly flourished under the ever-changing surroundings at the Buddies is Kyle Magennis.

The 19-year-old, alongside Lewis Morgan and Hearts loanee Liam Smith, earned call-ups to the Scotland Under-21 squad this week for their game against Andorra next Friday.

He is another part of the crop of talent that began to flourish in Paisley, with the Buddies being the platform that Morgan began to excel and earn him his move to Celtic and helped Stevie Mallan move to English Championship side Barnsley last summer.

And manager Jack Ross thinks that Magennis’s steely mentally, forged from clawing away from the drop zone last year is a trait that will put him in good stead and could help him go higher in the game than Mallan and Morgan before him.

“He is a good player and for me he is the most exciting one we have produced,” Ross said.

“He has the ability to play in different roles and not be fazed by it. He is gaining experience that is invaluable in moving forward.

“Playing regularly is really important for him. But with the circumstances last year, even Lewis and Stevie, I spoke regularly about the three of them that if we could achieve success and stay up that experience would be invaluable for them moving forward in their careers, and I’m sure the two of them would admit to that.”

Magennis’ eye-catching performances for the Under-20s last summer at the Toulon tournament, where the young Scots lost to eventual champions England in the semi-finals, beating the likes of Brazil on the way, proved another stepping stone for the youngster.

But the teenager’s start to the season was dashed after he tore his medial ligament in a preseason friendly against Dundee in July, and was ruled out for three months.

The Buddies boss admits there will be a time when he moves on to bigger and better things, and thought if he was fully fit during the transfer window he could have been plying his trade elsewhere this season.

Ross added: “It’s part of the nature of this profession that your best young players will move on at some point.

“I think Kyle did well at Toulon in the summer and I’m maybe wrong, but if he hadn’t had his injury during pre-season then it maybe would have been a testing period for us in that summer window, because his performances in Toulon probably brought him to the attention of other clubs as well.

“Unfortunately he ended up injured in that August window and when the window was closing.

“It [Scotland Under-21] puts players on another platform, and certainly for Lewis it propelled him to the forefront of people’s minds even more than he was already.

“Kyle will move on from here at some point definitely but the good thing is he keeps signing a new contract here.”

ST MIRREN head to Palmerston this Saturday to continue their promotion push against Queen of the South, a happy hunting ground recently, with wins i n their last three encounters in Dumfries.

The Buddies have also been boosted by the return of Morgan, who was ruled out against Dunfermline on Saturday due to tonsillitis. But Saints will be without Harry Davis, the manager not wanting risk the defender’s knees on the artificial surface.

But Ross has backed centreback pairing Jack Baird and Gary MacKenzie to shine on Saturday. He said: “It isn’t as big a loss as it could be. We have three centre-backs who are performing well. Whatever partnership has played has contributed to clean sheets. It is nice to have that comfort you have three good ones.”