JACK Ross, the Sunderland manager, says he has no interest in signing Rangers midfielder Greg Docherty.

Rangers will allow Docherty, who played no part in either of the Europa League ties against FK Shupki, to leave Ibrox on loan for first-team football, and the 21-year-old had been linked with a move to the English League 1 side.

While Ross’s rebuilding job at Sunderland has begun with a considerable tartan tinge, Docherty, who signed for Rangers from Hamilton in January, won’t be adding to it in the north east of England.

“No [he won’t be joining],” said Ross. “That’s not to say he’s not a good player, but we have other priorities at the moment positionally. We have a squad with no out-and-out strikers."

That last statement may come as a surprise to fans of St Mirren, the side Ross won the Championship with and subsequent promotion to the Premiership last season before he departed for Sunderland in the summer.

It was a happy home-coming for Ross as his new side hit Saints for six at the newly-named Simple Digital Arena yesterday in a friendly.

Ross has made seven signings for Sunderland so far as they seek a return to the English Championship, five of them having experience of playing football in Scotland.

Four out of that five, goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin signed from Hearts, midfielder Dylan McGeouch signed from Hibernian, Alim Ozturk, formerly at Tynecastle, and Chris Maguire, previously at Aberdeen and Kilmarnock, started in the 6-0 win against the Saints.

The goals came through doubles from Joshua Maja and Lyndon Gooch and further strikes from George Honeyman and Luke Molyneux.

McGeouch, in particular, impressed from the Scottish contingent, controlling things from the centre of the park.

Ross, who said he appreciated the reception the St Mirren fans gave him on his return, added: “I seem to get linked with every single player up in Scotland. Some of them are true but a lot of them aren’t true. I’ve got used to it; at first it bothered me a wee bit.

“It’s always a market I’ll look at because I know the players and there’s good players up here. Dylan was a no-brainer; our players already know how good he is and how good he’ll be for this club. It’s a market we’ll continue to explore.”

The man who replaced Ross as St Mirren manager, Alan Stubbs, described the heavy defeat as “grim”. Stubbs added: “I know is there is a lot of hard work to be done and we know we need to strengthen the squad. We knew that before today. Obviously, results like that highlight it.”