Buddies short at the back
St Mirren boss Gary Teale will have to fill a gaping hole in his defence for Saturday's Scottish Premiership match with Kilmarnock after losing three centre-halves.
Viktor Genev and Jim Goodwin are both suspended for the Paisley clash, while Marc McAusland has left the club after tearing up the final month of his contract.
Midfielder Isaac Osbourne has also quit the club early, as has striker Callum Ball.
Youngster Thomas Reilly hopes the Buddies can learn some lessons from Hearts' successful students and bounce back next season.
Sitting 10 points adrift at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership table, Saints look doomed to relegation and Reilly is already turning his attention to next season's Scottish Championship campaign.
The 20-year-old, though, is taking confidence from the way new second-tier winners Hearts responded to their own demotion heartache last term.
The Jambos were forced to field a squad of youngsters as the Tynecastle club fell into a financial black hole.
But head coach Robbie Neilson used those same fresh-faced troops as the bedrock of the team which cruised to this season's Championship title.
Reilly hopes he and a few of the club's young recruits will now get their chance before the season ends.
He said: "The manager said last week that he was perhaps going to make changes so hopefully I can get my chance and show him what I can do and maybe earn a new contract.
"If we do go down I would love to stay here and help push St Mirren back into the Premiership.
"I look at Hearts and see the way the young guys who played with them the season they went down have responded.
"Those guys were only young when they were in the SPL and credit to them, they did really well. They were just unlucky with the 15-point deduction.
"But when they went down to the Championship, they kept the same young boys in their team. That experience they got from playing in the top division allowed them to stroll to the title.
"Hopefully we can do the same. We've got five games left and hopefully myself and a few of the other young boys can be blooded into the team and give us the chance to build up some steam ahead of next season."
With 11th-placed Motherwell six points behind, Killie are not yet safe from the relegation play-off spot but winger Tope Obadeyi believes victory over St Mirren would be almost enough to confirm survival for another season.
He said: "The play-off spot is still nagging away at us because we can still be dragged into it. But I don't want to really think about it too much.
"One win would hopefully end any doubts. Two would for definite."
Jamie Hamill could make his first Kilmarnock appearance since Valentine's Day.
The midfielder has recovered from the ankle injury which has kept him out for the last two months, while club captain Manuel Pascali is also back in contention after ankle trouble of his own.
Defender Mark Connolly (broken collarbone) and striker Michael Ngoo (ankle) remain on the sidelines.
Source: PA
