RYAN HARDIE reckons he is already reaping the rewards of his first team involvement with St Mirren.

The striker joined Alex Rae’s side on loan earlier this summer and got his first goal for the Buddies in the 3-1 defeat to Raith Rovers last weekend.

Hardie pulled on the Light Blue jersey once again and scored against Stenhousemuir on Wednesday evening in the Irn-Bru Cup.

But his second strike in the competition wasn’t enough to prevent the Gers kids being eliminated as they missed out on a third round berth.

The 19-year-old will return to Saints duty on Saturday as Rae’s side face Hibernian in the Championship and he is determined to make the most of his chance to impress in Paisley.

“We said before the game that you need to get used to playing against these types of teams if you want to play at first-team level and ultimately that is your main goal,” he told RangersTV.

“It was testing and a few of the boys got challenged more and pushed out of their comfort zones but we did really well in what we do and it is always a learning curve.

“Playing first-team football every week it gets you ready for games like this, in the same environment and playing in a more competitive league.

“It is a different environment for most of the boys in this team, in the starting XI there was a couple of under 17s and five under 18s.

“There is only really Jordan Thompson and me who are Under 20s players, we fielded a young side and we need to learn from that.

“I think it’s a goal a start for me so far so it’s not been bad, I just need to keep doing that and keep working hard on other parts of my game which aren’t up to scratch yet.

“My link up play, heading and my all round play, everything needs to improve, you can never stop learning and practicing things every day.”