Irish eyes are smiling as Belfast kids join the Saints
St Mirren recently welcomed South Belfast Youth League U-13 and U-15 select teams to the club’s training ground.
In conjunction with official partners inspiresport, the sides enjoyed a training session with St Mirren Youth Academy coaches Sam Mawuena and John Divers at Ralston, before attending the Scottish Cup match with Dundee United.
The on the Sunday, they enjoyed matches where the U-13 side took on local side Thorn Athletic 2006, while the U-15 squad played an SYFA West Region select.
While visiting, the teams also got the chance to meet with St Mirren manager Oran Kearney and first team coach Jimmy Nicholl. They ended their tour with a private behind-the- scenes tour of the Simple Digital Arena led by St Mirren chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick.
Tony said: “We have been overwhelmed by the response from teams visiting our club.
“Our goal is to spread the good name of our brand in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It is obviously working as we continue to accept groups on a regular basis and they are turning into new fans from afar. In the next month we will welcome 150 more players and coaches to the club.”
Jed McCabe, the head of sales at inspiresport for Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, said: “The numbers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland keep on coming as word is spreading about how good the St Mirren ‘train and play’ programme is.
“The attention to detail is up there with the very best. The social media response has been nothing short of remarkable with many teams calling me wanting to set up a tour to St Mirren.
“I would like to thank Mark Gray from the SYFA West Region for setting up two wonderful matches. It was also good to see my home town team Thorn Athletic putting on a masterclass of football.”
For more information on inspiresport and their tours please contact jed@inspiresport.com.