St Mirren road to Hampden dream begins with Premier Sports Cup draw
This season has only just finished but the focus is already on the 2025-26 campaign.
It was a triple-A draw for St Mirren yesterday as they learned their Premier Sports Cup opponents.
The Buddies have been paired with Championship sides Ayr United and Arbroath as well as League One Annan Athletic and League Two Forfar Athletic in Group D.
And boss Stephen Robinson will hope his troops can progress further than they did this season when the Buddies fell to a 1-0 defeat to Jim Goodwin's Dundee United in the second round at Tannadice.
Playing in the group stages of the competition for the first time since 2023, it looks set to be an intriguing start to the season for the Buddies.
It will be a battle of familiar faces for young Saints Fraser Taylor and Callum Penman when they take on the Smokies with the pair having spent the campaign out on loan at Gayfield.
Having helped the club back to the Championship with a title success – Taylor winning the League One player of the year award into the bargain – they will now be looking to get one over on the part-time club that provided them a playing platform.
Arbroath are also a side which saw Mikael Mandron bag the first of his 19 goals for Saints.
It is yet to be seen if Scott Brown will still be in charge of Ayr when they face the Buddies with the former Celtic skipper being linked to vacant Premiership jobs at Motherwell and most notably Dundee.
However, it is pleasant reading for the black-and-white army as they have only lost to the Honest Men once in the last eight meetings.
That came in the League Cup in 2011 when Chris Smith struck in a 1-0 win for Ayr. Since then, the Buddies have had six wins and there have been two draws.
Meanwhile, Saints will face Annan for only the second time in the club's histories.
The first head-to-head was in the 2015/16 Challenge Cup when Jordan Stewart and Alan Gow saw Saints come from behind after Peter Weatherson gave Annan the lead in the opening minute.
Former skipper-and-manager Jim Goodwin and current Saints goalkeeping coach Jamie Langfield featured in the 2-1 win. The 2023 League Cup group saw the Buddies face Arbroath and Forfar – similar to yesterday's draw.
Robinson saw his side cruise to a 4-0 win over League Two Loons – a mirror result of the scoreline against Arbroath in the same period.
A Mandron double and goals from Mark O'Hara and Alex Gogic saw off Forfar. A Stav Nahmani brace and strikes by Mandron and O'Hara swept away Arbroath.
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