Irish League 'on the up' says Stephen Robinson as St Mirren young guns make loan moves
Stephen Robinson reckons Northern Irish football is the perfect place for his Buddies to bloom.
Striker Kieran Offord is the latest St Mirren academy product to ply his trade on loan across the North Channel after joining Crusaders.
The 20-year-old is already making his mark for the Belfast outfit having netted in four successive Irish Premiership games.
Three of those strikes were winning goals which earned him praise recently from impressed Seaview gaffer Declan Caddell.
Offord’s exploits on the Shore Road are seeing him follow in the footsteps of fellow Saints starlets Fraser Taylor and Luke Kenny who spent last season across the water at Ballymena United and Cliftonville, respectively.
Both players are now on the fringes of the first team – indeed, Taylor came off the bench in Bergen and set up Alex Iacovitti’s equaliser for Saints in their 3-1 UEFA Conference League defeat to SK Brann last month.
Proud Northern Irishman Robbo is convinced his homeland is ideal terrain for his youngsters to learn on the job.
And the Buddies manager will have no hesitation in allowing more of his starlets to get on the ferry at Cairnryan and embrace a new experience.
“Northern Irish football is on the up,” he said. “The crowds are on the up. The quality of football is on the up. There’s young managers now with bright new ideas.
“I think it’s a really good place to put people on loan because it’s competitive. The Northern Ireland crowds are very similar to Scotland. They have patience of about five seconds!
“It equips players for playing for us. It’s a really good environment to play football in. We’ll continue to loan players there and we see the benefits of that.”
There will be additional attention on Northern Irish football after Larne qualified for the UEFA Conference League proper following a 4-3 aggregate win over Gibraltar’s Lincoln Red Imps.
The reigning Irish Premiership champions will face Molde FK of Norway, the Republic of Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers, Switzerland’s St Gallen, Olimpija Ljubljana from Slovenia, Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) and Gent of Belgium in their six selected fixtures.
The club will also receive around £4 million in prize money and Robbo is thrilled for them.
“I think the chances of European football has changed,” he added. “The Irish League has completely changed. The professionalism has changed. The outlook of owners has changed. It’s a fantastic achievement from Tiernan Lynch [manager] and Larne and owner Kenny Bruce.
“The owner has invested so much money into Larne and it’s fantastic. There’s a lot of investment going into Northern Irish football. It’s a brilliant achievement. It’s a game-changer for the whole country. I’m delighted for them. We’ll be supporting them all the way in the Conference League.”
Meanwhile, Saints chief operating officer Keith Lasley is planning for Robbo to be at the helm in Paisley indefinitely as the club aims to build on successive top-six Premiership finishes.
“Absolutely,” he said. “We are determined that Stephen does stay.
“I think he’s enjoying his time and he is having a fantastic impact on the club; not just at first-team level but across the board in terms of playing a key role in putting the building blocks in place for what we feel will help not just in the immediate season, but will help the club in the future.
“We are very much aligned and we absolutely want him to stay here for the long term. Nothing will change. Football is what it is and things happen but, from our point of view, the long term is with Stephen in charge and that’s the way we are planning moving forward.”
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