Diarmuid O’Carroll believes St Mirren B team’s run out in the SPFL Trust Trophy will give the first team a serious fitness boost.
While the side that took on East Stirlingshire at the SMISA Stadium on Tuesday night was largely made up of academy youngsters, the Buddies took the opportunity to get minutes in the legs of forwards Toyosi Olusanya and Eamonn Brophy.
While the Saints were eventually beaten 4-2 on penalties after a goalless 90 minutes in Paisley, assistant boss O’Carroll is confident the first round clash will benefit both the club’s talented prospects and their senior players looking to get back to full fitness.
O’Carroll told St Mirren TV: “It was worthwhile. The likes of Fraser Taylor, Dylan Reid, Luke Kenny, Murray Campbell and Keiran Offord haven’t had many 90 minutes before.
“That was the main exercise behind it. Obviously we wanted to win as it was a competitive game.
“The boys dominated most parts of the game and dominated possession without hurting them in the final third.
“All in all it was a good exercise and it was just unfortunate how it worked out in the end.
“It was brilliant for Brophy. We got him 45 minutes so he can train normally as well for the rest of the week and build towards the weekend.
“It was big for Toyosi to get 90 minutes in him as well.
“Toyosi needs those minutes. He’s been training every week in with the younger boys and with ourselves.
“Sometimes it’s better off to get those minutes in these games. No disrespect to a lower league team, but you have to get minutes in games as opposed to just getting fitness from training.
“He’ll be better for that. It’ll stand him in good stead and he threatened in behind a few times. He was unlucky not to get a penalty and had a couple of half chances.
“Toyosi will definitely improve as he goes.”
After a forgettable first half, the Buddies improved after the break and went close to breaking the deadlock when Olusanya’s close range effort was denied by Ross Connelly.
Gavin Gallagher almost gave the hosts the lead with a powerful strike from 20 yards that just cleared the bar, before Offord fired into the side netting from a tight angle.
Saints keeper Kenzie Smyth came to the rescue with some fine stops to take the game to penalties, with East Stirlingshire eventually capitalising on Offord and Jay Henderson’s missed penalties in the shootout.
O’Carroll said: “The first half we moved the ball too slowly. We spoke to them at half time about that and I thought second half we dominated a lot more.
“We weren’t peppering their goal with efforts, which was a bit disappointing, but there’s a lot to take there for the younger boys especially.
“We’ll work with them on it in training. We don’t get a lot of opportunities for the younger lads to be exposed to mistakes and then learn from them.
“If they play games in competitions and friendlies, at least we can work with them properly back on the training ground.
“Good luck to East Stirling and hopefully they kick on after this.”
