BEN RAMAGE
He might not be one to make a song and dance of things off the pitch, but Buddies youngster Jay Henderson is determined to make a big noise on it.
The talented St Mirren midfielder agreed a new twoyear deal on Friday, fresh off the back of grabbing his first start for the club against Ross County.
The 19-year-old has been in the first team squad having impressed in training since returning from an indifferent loan spell at Clyde in the first half of the season.
While the modest kid paid his way out of his initiation song on the way to Pittodrie earlier this year, he’s desperate to make his mark on the first team, having signed a new deal with the club he’s been with since the age of nine.
He told Express Sport : “I’m absolutely buzzing and it was really good to sign the deal. I’m now aiming to get as many first team games as I can and get cemented into the team.
“It’s good to have the security of a two-year deal at such a young age and the next couple of years are an important stage of my career.
“With the career Kenny McLean and John McGinn had at St Mirren and where they are now, they are definitely an inspiration to me and my aim is to follow them.
“The fact they came through the youth academy at St Mirren makes them role models for the likes of myself and other young boys in the youth system.
“The manager has told me to work hard every day in training and be confident in myself. His confidence in me in itself gives me confidence.
“There’s a youth academy building at Ralston and, when you move into the first team changing room, it’s like a big step.
“But there is an initiation where you have to sing a song on the team bus in the first away trip you’re involved in and that’s the worst.
“We were away to Aberdeen when I had to do it, but I paid my way out of it because the forfeit is a £50 fine.
“I don’t like singing, so I just paid the money. It goes into the kitty for the team night out, although we can’t get that just now with restrictions, but we’ll get there eventually.
“I look up to the boys in the first team, but I can just sit back and admire them because it’s important for me to try and get into the first team.”
Henderson has been in with the bricks with the Buddies, having progressed through the youth ranks under the tutelage of David Longwell and Allan McManus.
Ahead of St Mirren’s crunch Scottish Cup quarter- final clash with Kilmarnock tonight, the teenager is hoping to pay them back now by becoming an important part of the first team which already has a youthful flavour with Ethan Erhahon and Cammy MacPherson having broken into the senior set up in recent seasons.
Henderson added: “I’ve been at the club since I was nine or ten- years- old so I don’t really know anything else. My family’s happy for me to stay here and so am I.
“You can see the journey that we’re on and the plan that we have. Okay, we missed out on the top six. but we‘ve still improved on what we did last year.
“We’re a very young team, with a lot of players from the youth academy in the squad and that’s a good thing.
“McManus was the reserve team coach when I moved up at 16 and he’s helped me so much and I can’t thank him enough, especially when it comes to the other side of the game. Defensively, he’s helped me a lot.”
“I was playing in the academy at the time we won the League Cup and went along with the squad and the coach, Davie Longwell.
“It would be something if I could go back to Hampden with the club as a player this time, after all the hard work and coming through every age group here.”