ST MIRREN manager Jack Ross has welcomed the early-season contribution of Gavin Reilly – and praised the striker for proving his doubters wrong. The former Queen of the South forward has netted six times in his opening eight games for the Paisley club, including a double in Saturday’s 3-1 victory away to Livingston.
That matches his total tally for the past two seasons when he scored four for Hearts and then two on loan at Dunfermline Athletic, prompting some St Mirren supporters to question the decision to sign him this summer.
Reilly, though, has made an immediate impact at his new club and his manager, who previously worked with the striker at Tynecastle, hopes he will go on to score the goals that lift St Mirren into promotion contention.
Ross said: “On a personal level I’m pleased for Gavin because when you have a disappointing season then there are questions asked of you. So he’s enjoying proving some people wrong and I’m sure he’ll want to continue doing that over the rest of the season.
“He has proven in the past that he can score goals at Championship level at Queens. And he’s since trained and played alongside some good players at Hearts. So he’s probably a better player now.
“He didn’t feature much at Tynecastle and then had a disappointing loan spell as well and people tend to only look at a player’s most immediate displays.
“But my assistant James Fowler worked with Gavin at Queens and I had him at Hearts so we both had first-hand experience of working with him and knew what he could do for us. We knew his attributes and felt he would thrive if we could get him in the right environment and one where he felt loved. And so far he’s done that with six goals and three assists. He’s been fantastic.”
Reilly has replaced Rory Loy who scored seven goals in the second half of last season including one against Hibs on the final day of the season that kept St Mirren in the Championship. Ross, who doesn’t plan on appealing the red card shown to defender Gary Irvine on Saturday, hopes Reilly can go on and prove similarly prolific.
He added: “I think most fanbases look for a traditional goalscorer and our supporters would have looked for that with Rory moving on and wondered just how Gavin might do. It’s still very early but he’s maybe proved a few people wrong. He won’t score in every game but he’s a very honest boy and you can’t ever question his workrate.
“I’ve no doubts that he will continue to prove this form over the course of the season. It’s helpful to have one player willing to carry the burden of scoring the majority of your goals. We’ve also got players like Lewis Morgan and Cammy Smith chipping in but it would be an enormous help to me if I had someone contributing with 15 to 20 goals a season.”
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