New era kicks off for St Patrick's FPs as top amateur side swap leagues

St Patrick’s boss John O’Brien is backing the club’s young guns to make an impression, after a summer of change.

The Saints’ first team have moved from the Scottish Premier AFL to the Caledonian League First Division, and kicked off the campaign against Rothesay on Saturday.

On and off the park there have been changes, with coach Zander Diamond joining Broomhill - alongside defender Michael Aitken and top scorer Lewis Lobban, whilst the influential Dylan Molloy has joined West of Scotland League Vale of Clyde.

However Saints have bolstered their ranks with a number of new additions, and added former Saints star Paul Bell - who enjoyed a successful playing spell with the club as well as in the Junior ranks with Clydebank to their coaching squad.

Boss O’Brien said: “We are really excited about the new season. We have moved leagues and are looking forward to playing new teams who we maybe haven’t played before and some old opponents that we will be competing against once more.

“We have had a decent pre-season where we have managed to play five friendlies and have slotted in a good few hard training sessions, which should hopefully stand us in good stead for the season.

“We obviously have lost three players from last season with Michael Aitken and Lewis Lobban joining Zander at Broomhill and Dylan Molloy leaving for Vale of Clyde.

“All three were superb for us and they left with our best wishes, but in football when one door closes another one opens and we have made a few new signings ourselves, and are very hopeful that the new young players will fill the spaces left by our ex-players.

“We have also been busy on the coaching side as well and have secured the services of Paul Bell as first team coach.

“Paul was a magnificent