As one season closes, another one opens.
With the Buddies’ trip to Pittodrie for the final game of the 2021/22 campaign still fresh in the mind, Wednesday’s Premier Sports Cup draw has already switched attention firmly on to next season.
The League Cup understandably holds a spot in every St Mirren’s supporter’s heart after the historic success of 2013.
The celebrations will live long in the memory, at least those that weren’t washed away by pints of beer (or wine).
So there’s always an air of excitement at the start of the summer when the group stage is drawn and dreams of a return to Hampden start to form again in increasingly beer garden-infused brains.
St Mirren’s luck in their draw in Group E this time around could have been a lot kinder.
They were picked alongside the highest-ranked second seed side, the current darlings of Scottish football, Arbroath.
Almost every Scottish football fan, barring those in Kilmarnock and Inverness shirts, wanted to see Dick Campbell’s part-time team upset the odds and either win the Championship or get promoted through the play-offs.
Unfortunately the Red Lichties fell just short on both occasions, but the fact they finished just two points behind eventual champions Kilmarnock in the table shows just what a force to be reckoned with are.
Especially at Gayfield Park, which is where the majority of Saints fans will be hoping to travel to once the fixtures are released.
While that will make the clash that little bit more difficult, trips to new stadiums in other corners of the country are what cup competitions are all about.
The Buddies will also face Airdrieonians, who ran Cove Rangers all the way in the race for the League One title.
While they will be without manager Ian Murray, the former Saints boss who has just taken over at Raith Rovers, they will still pose a threat as a team more used to winning than losing over the last 12 months.
The same goes for Edinburgh City, the in-form capital side that have just been promoted up to the third tier for the first time in their history.
They too will pose a serious threat, particularly should the sides meet on the artificial pitch at Ainslie Park.
Cowdenbeath, who were relegated from League Two at the end of the season, should represent the only truly comfortable tie of the group.
But there are no easy ties in cup football, especially just after pre-season when there’s still some rustiness around the squad.
Luckily the Buddies have a manager in the dugout who has already proved he has a cup run or two up his sleeve.
In his first full season in charge at Fir Park he steered the Steelmen all the way to the League Cup final, beating Ross County, Aberdeen and Rangers in the process.
He also guided Motherwell to the Scottish Cup final in the very same season, with current Saints striker Curtis Main bagging an impressive brace against Aberdeen in their semi-final at Hampden.
While Robinson would ultimately lose both finals against Brendan Rodgers’ fairly unstoppable Celtic side, Motherwell and their jubilant supporters still enjoyed four trips to Hampden in the space of just six months.
Naturally there is still a hell of a long way to go, with the Buddies summer recruitment drive starting to kick off in earnest with the arrivals of former Motherwell men Trevor Carson and Mark O’Hara.
That has inevitably drawn plenty of disparagement from the North Lanarkshire club’s supporters, with many on social media now referring to St Mirren as St Motherwell FC.
But if Robinson can repeat the early success he enjoyed at Fir Park in Paisley and steer the club back to Hampden this season, St Mirren fans won’t care one bit.
