Stephen Robinson's message to St Mirren ace Lewis Jamieson after loan move to Raith Rovers

Stephen Robinson yesterday backed Lewis Jamieson to shine on loan at Raith Rovers.

The 22-year-old joined the Fifers’ bid to challenge for the William Hill Championship title last night. He will remain at Stark's Park until the end of the season but the Buddies do have a recall option in January.

Jamieson is fighting back to fitness after injury while gaffer Robbo admitted game time at St Mirren would be limited due to the change in first-team shape he has currently deployed.

He explained: "He's carried an injury for four or five weeks which has kept him away from the first-team stuff. [Also], the system we're playing at this moment in time is different compared to last season when he had a lot of game time and a lot of opportunities.

"But with Conor [McMenamin] and Kilts [Greg Kiltie] injured, we've had to change what we've been doing.

"I don't want to stop his development and growth from last season and we believe that going to Raith will be a fantastic loan move for him. I believe they will be up near the top of the Championship and challenging.

"It's great for LJ and he is someone we're loaning out to develop further and we'll make sure he comes back again at Christmas or the end of the season.

"It has to be for the future. We can't give him the game time just now because of the system and we've not got a development squad in place because of numbers and the number of games we've had."

There could be other departures as the Buddies pursue their policy of getting youngsters into first-team environments where they can learn their trade on the job. Striker Kieran Offord is already out at Northern Irish Premiership side Crusaders.

Robbo added: "There are other boys we're looking at for loan moves. At a young age, you have to play football. LJ is still young and talented and I believe Raith have got a very good footballer."

Don't miss the latest Renfrewshire headlines – sign up to our free daily newsletter here