St Mirren striker Gavin Reilly has just endured the most frustrating season of his life, but he is ready to take it out on Championship defences.

Reilly was farmed out by parent club Hearts last term to increase his opportunities of first-team football, but his loan stay at Dunfermline didn’t go to plan.

The forward scored just twice for the Pars last season, but he found himself on the substitute’s bench more often than not as he languished behind Nicky Clark in the pecking order.

But having now signed for the Buddies on a permanent basis, he feels ready to show that he is more than capable of hacking it in the division again.

When asked if he has a point to prove this season, Reilly said: “Yes, definitely. Last season was the most frustrating and probably the least prolific that I’ve had in my career so far.

“I don’t want to go into detail about things, but last season just didn’t work out. It’s in the past now, and I want to take those negatives and turn them into positives this season.

“I’m away from Hearts now, I’m here permanently, so it’s a fresh start for me and hopefully I can use that to motivate myself to get going when the season actually starts.

“The first season at Hearts it was hard coming in from playing Championship all my career to then go into the Premiership.

“I was in and out, but I thought I did well with the chances that I got. I went and spoke to Robbie Neilson, who was the manager at the time, when the season finished and we both agreed that going out and getting game-time last season was the best thing to do.

“I stood by his view, but last season at Dunfermline it just didn’t work out. It’s done now, and hopefully coming here fresh and permanently, it gives me a good chance to get going again.

“You’ve got to use all the negatives and fuel them into being positive. Any footballer who hasn’t been playing or has been injured, you’ve always got to stay positive and when you get that chance, you have to take it.

“I’m 24 now and I’m still at a good age, so hopefully I can get back going again this season the way I was before.”

“I just want to go back to playing regularly, and hopefully I can start contributing and scoring goals again.”

Like Reilly, St Mirren manager Jack Ross has high expectations for the season ahead, and the forward sees no reason why he and his teammates can’t rise to meet them.

“He’s already told the boys that we want to be looking to push and get promotion from the league,” Reilly said.

“If that doesn’t come from winning the league, then we’re definitely looking to go up through the playoffs.

“It’s a long season and with the fixtures coming out, it just shows how tight the league is going to be this season.

“You’ve always got to aim high though and that’s what we’ll be doing.

“They made a poor start last year, but when Jack came in and took over, they were definitely one of the better teams at the end of the season, and it’s a fresh start now this season.

“Jack has come in and worked with the boys right through pre-season, which definitely helps, and hopefully we’ll be hitting the ground running when the competitive games come around.”

St Mirren have meanwhile announced that Intu Braehead will be their new shorts sponsors for the coming season.