St Mirren

St Mirren are poised to complete signing of 22-year-old Jamaican winger Jalmaro Calvin, who played alongside new signing Richard King at Cavalier. (David Irvine on X), external

St Mirren have finalised co-operation agreements with Clydebank and Dumbarton. (Herald - subscription required), external

Read Wednesday's Scottish gossip

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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 system.

The initiative was passed earlier this year to help improve player development in Scotland by providing more opportunities for young talent.

St 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 Clydebank.

As part of the agreement, Buddies youngsters Carrick McEvoy, Thomas Falconer and Theo McCormick have all joined Dumbarton, while Billy Hutchison will link up with Clydebank.

St 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."

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We asked you for your views following St Mirren's penalty shootout loss to Arbroath in the Premier Sports Cup.

Here's what some of you said:

Tony: Absolutely terrible performance. No shots at goal and Urminsky kept us in it. But, remember how our season went two years ago after Montrose beat us so fingers crossed for the same.

William: Pathetic performance, if that's what we are taking into the season it's not looking good. Nothing up front and no creativity, it was easy to play against us.

Douglas: An utter embarrassment from St Mirren.

Goalkeeper Urminsky was our best player with four outstanding saves. Two shots the whole game and poor shots they were.

Arbroath were the more hungry side throughout.

Robert: Poor performance, much too slow in the build-up, hardly tested their goalkeeper. Thought our goalkeeper played well.

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"Shocked" Stephen Robinson apologised to St Mirren fans who travelled to Arbroath for their Premier Sports Cup opener which ended in a goalless draw and a defeat on penalties.

The Buddies - who lost captain Mark O'Hara to a second yellow card after 88 minutes - couldn't break down the Championship outfit inside the 90 minutes, and lost out on the bonus point that comes with winning the penalty shootout.

St Mirren are back on the road on Tuesday, visiting League 2 Forfar Athletic and Robinson is demanding a response after he "didn't recognise" some of his side's play.

"I'm in a little bit of shock," he told club media.

"The performance of maybe 13 of them is something I've not seen all pre-season. We've had a fantastic pre-season.

"I didn't recognise some of the decision-making, some of the passing, some of the simple things we've continually done through the pre-season.

"We decided as a collective not to do that and got exactly what we deserved.

"We're not going to feel sorry for ourselves. It's disappointing for us, disappointing for the people that travelled a long way on a Saturday when they could have been sitting in the garden – I bet they wish they had done.

"But it's a group of boys that have never let me down over a longer period of time. As I say, we have to be and will be better than that.

"We have to react to it, we will be better. We have to do simple things which we didn't do."

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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'Hara.

While 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 final.

The 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."

Latvia centre-back Daniels Balodis, the 27-year-old who left St Johnstone this summer, is set to sign for Tatran Presov in Slovakia despite interest from St Mirren. (Daily Record), external

Defender Richard King has been in training with St Mirren following his move from Cavalier but is unlikely to feature in Saturday's Scottish League Cup meeting with Arbroath. (Herald - subscription required), external

Read Thursday's Scottish gossip

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Mikael Mandron scored twice as St Mirren defeated hosts Airdrieonians 2-0 in their final pre-season friendly.

Mandron struck after being set up by Marcus Fraser on the quarter-hour mark.

And the forward, 30, headed his second after the break.

Stephen Robinson's side start their competitive season away to Arbroath in the Scottish League Cup on Saturday (15:00).

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Richard King already feels part of a St Mirren "family" after the Jamaica international arrived at his new club last week.

Defender King, 23, signed for Stephen Robinson's side last month but has now joined up with his team-mates following the conclusion of Jamaica's participation in the Gold Cup.

"I'm very excited to get working with the boys and the coaches," he told club media.

"It feels like a good place to be. There are some good lads and some nice people.

"From my little time here, I can see the team is like a family. Everyone is close, really works together so I think it's really nice here. I know I'm in a good place."

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Assistant manager Brian Kerr says the training camp in Spain has been "very beneficial" for St Mirren as they prepare for their season-opener on Saturday.

The Buddies travel to Gayfield this weekend (Saturday, 12 July kick-off 15:00 BST) to take on Arbroath in their first League Cup group stage game.

Before that, they face Airdrieonians on Tuesday in their final pre-season game back on home soil.

Stephen Robinson's side have spent the last week in the blistering heat of Pinatar, and Kerr can only see positives from their time in the sun.

"It's been a great week," Kerr told club media.

"It's been great for bringing the new boys together, bringing some young boys over, continuing to add to the fitness that the boys had already topped up on and getting our ideas across for the way we want to play.

"The boys have worked very, very hard.

"It's been extremely warm conditions but what they get out of that is going to be very beneficial going back in towards the last pre-season game next week and then the first game of the cup."

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St Mirren's 2013 Scottish League Cup triumph highlighted the power of the Paisley community, says former Buddies captain and manager Jim Goodwin.

The Dundee United boss skippered the Buddies to the club's historic 3-2 win over Hearts more than 12 years ago.

Reflecting on the success and the celebrations that followed, Goodwin told BBC Scotland: "It brought the whole community of Paisley together. It was something [manager] Danny Lennon did really well.

"We did a lot of school visits and hospital visits, we were around all the different businesses trying to generate as much support as possible. The fans turned out in great numbers on the day at Hampden.

"I don't think any of us would have anticipated the scenes back in Paisley town centre [after we won]. At one stage you thought, there's nobody here, then you turned the corner and you saw thousands and thousands lining the streets.

"They were hanging out of windows. The weather wasn't great and they still went to the bother. I look back with fond memories and it's a nice thing to show to my son, who's football daft."

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St Mirren completed their training camp in Spain with a 2-1 friendly win over English League Two side MK Dons.

Roland Idowu and Alex Iacovitti were on target in a morning kick-off at the Pinatar Arena.

Idowu scored his third goal of pre-season in the second minute when he gathered a pass from Jonah Ayunga and managed to squeeze the ball home despite a stumble.

Ayunga inadvertently turned a cross into his own net for the MK Dons leveller, but a header from Iacovitti at a corner had the Paisley team back in front before the interval.

"There was a lot of pleasing stuff," manager Stephen Robinson told club media. "It's been a good week for us.

"We finished the game with seven academy kids. That will give them a little flavour of the physicality and intensity.

"When you're an under-18 at St Mirren, you're never too far away from the first team and some have shown they need a little bit more. They need to go on loan, get stronger, maybe their decision-making needs to be quicker."

St Mirren have a Tuesday friendly with Airdrie scheduled and open their League Cup campaign away to Arbroath next Saturday.

Ross County beat Dundee United and St Mirren to the signature of 21-year-old left-back Len O'Sullivan from Glenavon. (Scottish Sun, print edition)

Read Saturday's Scottish Gossip in full.

Listen as Martin Dowden previews the season ahead for St Mirren with with Div McDonald from Pie and Bovril and Jamie Cockburn from the Misery Hunters podcast.

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Beni Baningime's deflected goal cancelled out Evan Mooney's early strike as Hearts and St Mirren drew in a pre-season friendly out in Spain.

Both sides were heavily-rotated in the "incredible heat", with Buddies boss Stephen Robinson adding it was "a good workout against a very strong Hearts side".

Mooney, 17, opened the scoring 13 minutes into the affair, finishing off the move he started with a slammed finish by Zander Clark.

Baningime lost possession for the Buddies goal, but the Hearts midfielder made up for his mistake when he let fly from distance.

A wicked deflection off Alex Iacovitti wrong-footed new signing Ryan Mullen in goal, leaving him with no chance.

St Mirren's Conor McMenamin thought he had the winner when the ball was in the back of the net, but the offside flag denied him.

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Liam Donnelly says it has been an "easy transition" into the St Mirren squad since joining from Kilmarnock last week.

The midfielder, who is also comfortable in defence, spent three seasons at Killie after joining from Motherwell, where he worked with current Buddies boss Stephen Robinson.

He enjoyed his first run-out for the Buddies in the friendly win against Dumbarton on Saturday and was impressed with the "really good" quality of the group.

"I know a few of the lads here already, I know the manager, some of the staff as well, so it's been quite an easy transition to get settled in," he told club media.

"[The quality] is really good. Obviously I've seen that from playing against the team over the last couple of years, there's not been too many changes from last season, so I know the quality that's there.

"I'm hopefully here to add to it and build on the success of the last few years."

As well as adding quality to the crop, Donnelly is also hoping to bring "tenacity".

"[I'll probably be] the sitting midfielder," he added. "I like to break things up, win the ball back, get things ticking, get things moving from the back as well."

Scotland schoolboy international Cameron Keay has rejected an offer of a new contract from Greenock Morton despite St Mirren having cooled their interest in the 18-year-old forward. (Greenock Telegraph), external

Read Tuesday's Scottish Gossip in full.

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BBC Sport has taken a look at which players will be free agents on 1 July.

The majority of major football leagues run from late summer to late spring, with pre-season in June and July. Therefore, contracts across most divisions typically expire at 23:59 on 30 June each year.

Those whose contracts are expiring but have already agreed transfers to new clubs are not included, as they will not become free agents.

Some Scottish Premiership contracts expire on 31 May rather than 30 June - the below players either already are or will become free agents.

Aberdeen: Tom Ritchie

Celtic: Greg Taylor

Dundee: Scott Fraser, Antonio Portales, Joe Shaughnessy

Dundee United: David Babunksi, Allan Campbell, Lewis Moult, Bryan Mwangi

Falkirk: N/A

Hearts: Jorge Grant, Barrie McKay, Lawrence Shankland

Hibernian: Maksymilian Boruc, Junior Hoilett

Kilmarnock: Kyle Magennis, Kieran O'Hara, Kyle Vassell

Livingston: N/A

Motherwell: Moses Ebiye, Harry Paton, Dominic Thompson, Davor Zdravkovski

Rangers: Adam Devine, Tom Lawrence, Ianis Hagi

St. Mirren: Dennis Adeniran, Elvis Bwomono