St Mirren have officially signed Youth Academy player Ben Cameron on a two year development contract.

The 16 year-old is a product of the club's youth system, and follows in the footsteps of current First Team stars Stephen McGinn, Kyle Magennis and Jack Baird.

Ben has also represented Scotland at U16s level on eight occasions.  

We would like to thank our good friends at Vienna’s Night Club for their exclusive offer to Saints' adult season ticket holders.

For season 2018/19 adult season ticket holders will get free entry to the club before 12 midnight and just £3 entry after midnight which is exclusive to them.

The offer will be in place every night Vienna’s is open barring the occasional event night (GBX nights etc), however, there will still be a discount in place on those nights.

Commercial Manager, Campbell Kennedy said: "I would like to thank Vienna’s General Manager, Kenny Clark for this fantastic offer to Saints season ticket holders. I would also like to thank him for coming on board for the new season by taking out a commercial package."

Any other businesses who wish to offer season ticket holders a discount, please contact Campbell Kennedy on 0141 840 1337 or email commercial@stmirren.com

Car park season tickets for the 2018/19 season will be going on sale on June 4th 2018.

People who already have a car park pass for Season 2018/19 will have until 1st July to renew their pass, after this time any remaining passes will be sold on a first come first served basis.

The cost of the car park pass, which covers all games in season 2018/19, will be £65.

Car park passes are available by filling out the application form here and handing it in to reception at the Paisley 2021 Stadium.

We have received some emails, tweets and other communications relating to the recent decision to house the Celtic and Rangers fans in the South Stand next season.

Rather than replying to these all individually we thought it would be better to expand on the information we have provided so far on our website and on social media. 

Firstly, we can completely understand that the announcement was not universally well received but please rest assured that the decision was not taken lightly by the board. As stated in earlier articles we looked at various options before coming to this tough decision and we are still convinced it was the correct one based on our longer term goals. 

Here are some of the main points that have been raised;

SAFETY OF FANS

One of the recurring questions that has arisen has been the safety aspects of housing the away fans in the South Stand.  We consulted with both the local police and our safety officer before making our decision. They are comfortable that the proposed setup can be policed in a safe and acceptable manner just as it was on the previous occasion.

The safety of all spectators attending matches at our stadium is of paramount importance. 

FINANCE

Our stated aim is to have St Mirren challenging in the top 6 of the Scottish Premiership.

This ambition is one that hopefully is shared by everyone connected with the football club.

It is no coincidence in football that league position and the size of a managers budget are usually fairly well aligned.

There will always be exceptional seasons where the trend is bucked both positively and negatively but generally speaking for our football club to change from one merely seeking to survive to one regularly challenging for a place in the top six requires us to increase our overall turnover by around 50%. 

That is a huge task but one we are committed to achieving.

While we have long term plans to increase our turnover through non-football activities the biggest step towards revenue growth in the short term is to be in the Premiership. We’ve achieved that and having done so we now want to make sure we stay there.

We need to give the manager a budget that shows we are serious about staying in the division and, as a board, we need to investigate every avenue to achieve that without putting the club at risk. Making this decision means that we can add a six figure sum to that budget to help make this happen.  

The vision of a day when St Mirren fans fill the West, South and East stands and we can restrict all other clubs supporters to the North stand is one we all share and dream of but that will only happen with more success on the pitch.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Although this decision gives Celtic and Rangers a larger support than previously, St Mirren supporters will retain the majority of seats in the stadium.  We are hopeful of a big home crowd for these (and all other) games where the atmosphere will be electric. Importantly this decision means that for all our other games the away fans will only have the north stand which will allow us to build on the superb support within the stadium that helped us so much this season. 

We want to win every game we play, home or away, and the support plays a huge part of that, as we have seen over the past 18 months.

FIRST HOME PREMIERSHIP GAME

We have been assured by the SPFL that our opening home game where we raise the Championship flag will not be against Rangers or Celtic. This ensures that all three home stands will be fully available for what will hopefully be another special day for us.

IN SUMMARY

As we seek to continue to improve and to grow the club we will sometimes have to make difficult decisions like these and it’s very important to us that we try and communicate the reasons behind them as clearly as we can. Hopefully the above helps.

The sense of togetherness we have at the club right now is tremendous. We never take your support for granted and we want to grow and foster the good feeling we have around the club.

As a board we feel we have real positive momentum and we are very excited for the challenges which lie ahead in the Premiership. We know you will be too.

We were on our way, now we’re here to stay.

The draw for the group stage of the 2018/19 Betfred Cup will be made on Friday May 25 and will be broadcast live on BT Sport 2 at 6.30pm.

The 40-team group stage includes the 38 SPFL clubs not involved in European competition plus Highland League winners Cove Rangers and Lowland League champions Spartans.

The format remains the same as the two previous seasons, with the eight group winners and four best runners-up joining the four UEFA participants in the last 16.

The full group stage fixture list will be confirmed during the week commencing Monday June 4, once broadcast selections have been made.

Betfred Cup dates 2018/19

Group stage MD1 – Weekend of Saturday July 14
Group stage MD2 – Tuesday/Wednesday July 17/18
Group stage MD3 – Weekend of Saturday July 21
Group stage MD4 – Tuesday/Wednesday July 24/25
Group stage MD5 – Weekend of Saturday July 28

Second round – Weekend of Saturday August 18

Quarter-finals – Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday September 25/26/27

Semi-finals – Saturday/Sunday October 27/28

Final – Sunday December 2

We are delighted to announce that Jack Ross has been named Ladbrokes Championship Manager of the Year. 

The Buddies gaffer added the award to the PFA Scotland Manager of the Year award he earned a few weeks ago. 

It's been a fantastic season for the club and the manager, with Jack helping lead us to the Ladbrokes Championship title and promotion back to the Premiership. 

All at St Mirren Football Club are saddened to hear that former Official Website Webmaster, Kenny Pointon passed away on Saturday morning after a two year battle with cancer.

Kenny, along with his wife Karin, set up the club's first official website in 2000 with Kenny continuing his role as Webmaster up till the summer of 2016.

Former official website editor, Norrie Jamieson said of Kenny: "Kenny was inventive with his design of the website and helped push the club towards being one of the first football clubs to work with a database driven website.

"His work at St Mirren had him in demand by other clubs also as he was often approached for help and advice in the early days of internet mania when clubs were looking to get an online presence secured. Something Kenny was more than happy to help out with.

"Kenny will be a loss to all who knew him".

Away from St Mirren, Kenny worked as a structural engineer and was well regarded within his field. He and Karin eventually tied the knot in 2011 and lived in Elderslie up till Kenny's illness.

All at St Mirren Football Club pass on our condolences to Karin and Kenny's family at this sad time for their loss.

Once the funeral arrangements are confirmed we will relay the details.

Following St Mirren Chief Executive Tony Fitzpatrick’s visit to Valencia last November manager Jack Ross and James Fowler were recently invited by the club's partners inspiresport's Head of Sales for Scotland, Jed McCabe to visit inspiresport's exclusive club Valencia CF.

Jack and James were invited in behind the scenes of the world famous Mestalla Stadium and had a look at how Valencia went about their business from the academy through to the first team.

They also had the chance to watch several academy teams train ranging from U6s to U19s along with access to watch the reserve and first team train.

One of Valencia's coaches Toni Navarro took the time to show Jack and James behind the scenes at the academy - sharing the club's philosophy and academy structure along with how they go about scouting the best players in Spain and their pathway to the first team.

Due to the links initially forged by Tony’s visit last November and now cemented by Jack and James recent visit the link between St. Mirren, inspiresport and Valencia is becoming stronger.

The club would like to provide an update on the contractual status of Gavin Reilly and Harry Davis.

Gavin has been offered a new deal with the club and we are awaiting his decision.

Harry was offered a contract extension, however, he has turned this down after indicating he plans to return to England for family reasons.

The club would like to offer its best wishes to Harry and thank him for his contributions to the club over the last 18 months.

With season tickets going on sale on May 22nd, we can now confirm the match day ticket prices for the 2018/19 season.

MATCH DAY TICKETS (2018/19)

*Carer free if proof provided that disabled person received higher rate of PIP for mobility

MATCH DAY TICKETS – Cat A Games (Celtic/Rangers)

We also announced that season tickets for the South Stand would not be valid for matches against Celtic and Rangers and that supporters with a season ticket in that stand would be eligible to purchase reduced tickets for these matches in the Main and West Stands.

We can confirm the reduced prices are as follows: