GAVIN Reilly should have been on best-man duty on Saturday as his close friend tied the knot at Scotland’s most famous wedding venue of Gretna.
Now he wants to renew his vows with runaway Championship winners St Mirren for a crack at the Premiership next season.
Reilly, who has top-flight experience with Hearts, is out of contract at the end of this highly enjoyable campaign.
And with girlfriend Chelsea also expecting their baby next month, he would love to tie things up this week.
The 24-year-old said: “I was supposed to be best man for my mate’s wedding – although actually there were two of us. I helped prepare the speech – but I got out of delivering it
“I had to make a mad dash down to Gretna to make it in time for the reception.
“I am really happy at St Mirren and I’ve made that clear any time I’ve been asked about it.
“My girlfriend is pregnant at the moment, so I need to sit down and think what’s best for all of us.
“I have had a couple of conversations with the relevant people, but it’s not reached the stage yet where an offer has physically been made to me.
“I’ve spoken to the gaffer, Tony [Fitzpatrick] and my agent. There’s no written offer yet, but I’m confident we can get it sorted before we leave for summer.
“My girlfriend is due in a couple of weeks – the 7th of May. So it would be good to get everything wrapped up before then.
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“The timing is perfect. The league is over now, so I won’t need to worry about getting up in the middle of the night with the baby and then having training the next day!
“In years gone by, it would only be myself that I had to worry about in terms of my contract situation. But that’s not the case now – it’s completely flipped on its head.
“It has been a great season for me. I have scored a lot of goals for a title-winning team and I also have the blessing now of becoming a dad for the first time.”
Reilly has been one of the key components to St Mirren’s sensational season which reached the pomp and ceremony stage on Saturday when they were presented with the silverware and then embarked on an open-top bus tour of Paisley. He genuinely believes Saints can make an impact when they return to Premiership.
He said: “If we can keep the core of this squad together, I think we can do really well in the Premiership. There’s no reason why not.
“I know we had a couple of eye-openers this season with heavy defeats to Aberdeen and Partick Thistle.
“But, especially in the Aberdeen game, there were spells where we were really good going forward and actually caused them a lot of problems. We maybe just need to tighten up slightly at the other end. But we certainly have every chance of doing well.”
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Fittingly, it was a memorable final appearance in front of the home fans for Lewis Morgan. He set up the opener for Danny Mullen in 11 minutes and although Michael Doyle levelled in 30 minutes with a header, Morgan scored the winner in 73 minutes finishing off a sweeping move involving Reilly and Cammy Smith. Reilly is convinced Morgan will be a major success when he makes the step up to Celtic.
Reilly added: “It was great to get it done last week, which allowed everyone to really enjoy Saturday.
“We were good in the first half of the season, but then we have been even better since the turn of the year.
“Lewis has obviously been a major part of that and he will be a big loss when he goes to Celtic. But we have other good players and that shouldn’t be forgotten.
“I think, if he’s given a fair chance, he can definitely perform and do really well for Celtic. He’s still a young lad, but he’s so mature and level-headed.
“He came back to us on loan in January and he could have just tossed the rest of the season away. But nothing could be further from the truth.
“He has come back and been absolutely brilliant for us, which is just a credit to how professional he is. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
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