The future is bright for St Mirren Women.
That’s the view of head coach Kate Cooper after seeing the club’s academy under-15 side lift the Leanne Crichton League title.
The senior team have suffered a difficult start to the first half of their SWF Championship campaign, which ended with a 3-1 defeat away to Airdrie last weekend.
Cooper insists the club still have plenty to be positive about heading into the winter break, especially with their young prospects proving they were the best in Scotland after winning their league.
Cooper told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “The first half of the season has been really tough, which we anticipated it would be.
“The winter break has come at a really good time for us. It gives us the perfect chance to organise and recover after so many covid infections and injury problems.
“We’ve also brought in a lot of new players so it will give us time to work with them and help bed them into the side.
“Even though we’ve been taking hits recently with some heavy defeats the players are still not downhearted. They’re still very committed and we know we will get there eventually.
“It’s also been really promising to see our under-15 side win their league. That shows there’s lots of potential coming through the system.
“The under-15s put in a tremendous effort through challenging times. They showed great resilience and determination and every single player has brought great pride to the club.
“We’ve also seen some of the younger girls who have already stepped up to the senior side make a great impact.
“There is lots of talent coming through and the future looks really bright for the whole club.”
Under-15's coach Richard Petherick said: "The players and coaches have worked extremely hard this year.
"And given the pandemic and the impact it had, it's an even greater achievement.
"We are looking forward to building on this and we are really proud of the girls."
St Mirren's senior side don’t have another league fixture until Sunday, January 16 when they take on Edinburgh City at home.
They do, however, have a festive Scottish Cup clash with Montrose to look forward to on Sunday, December 19.
Cooper is lining up some friendlies around that cup tie to try and help her recent new additions get used to their new teammates.
She said: “As well as helping to recharge the batteries, the winter break also gives us a lot of purpose in terms of getting ready for the next round of league fixtures.
“We’ve also got a home cup tie against Montrose in December which we’re really looking forward to.
“That’ll be a good challenge against a tough team.
“We’ve brought in a lot of new players and we know it will take them time to settle and learn how to play with their new teammates.
“I’m going to try and arrange a few friendlies around the Montrose game, just to give the team the best chance of knitting together.”
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