St Mirren defender Jack Baird has signed a two-year contract extension which will tie him to the club until May 2021.

A product of the youth academy, Baird made his debut under Tommy Craig in November 2014 and has gone on to make 144 appearances for the club, scoring six goals.

Despite the managerial changes in that time, the 22-year-old insists he has simply concentrated on his own game in order to stay in each new gaffer's plans.

He said: "With new managers bringing in new centre backs every transfer window, I just try and keep working hard and just try and make sure I’m at least in with a shout of playing. If I don’t always play I’m always kind of there and if something ever goes wrong, you are always hoping the manager can trust me to put me in.

“I seem to get on alright with most people. I’ve never thought ‘Oh no I’m in trouble here, he doesn’t fancy me at all’ when a new manager comes in. Even if they’ve come in and not been sure about me, I’ve managed to kind of turn it around eventually. I just try and work hard and make sure the manager knows I want to be here, I want to play all the time and try get in the team as much as I can.”

Speaking on signing his new deal, Baird told stmirren.com: "I’m absolutely delighted. I’m really happy here and when I was asked about extending my deal it was an easy decision for me.

"I’ve had some brilliant memories here and I feel I have improved a lot since I first came through.

"I’ve got a great relationship with the fans and they are always behind me.”


Boss Oran Kearney added: "Jack has made nearly 150 appearances behind him and he’s still at a tender age to be fair.

"His best years are still to come. There’s a huge amount of football in him and he has done really well to date.

"He’s only going to get better with age so I think it’s important that we tie players like that down."

The Buddies face a trip to Steven Gerrard’s Rangers today and while Baird admits Saints may have more important games in terms of staying up, he is still relishing the chance to play at one of the country's biggest stadiums. 

Kearney's men took on the other half of the Old Firm last month, losing 4-0 at Parkhead and Baird is hoping to right the wrongs from that match. 

READ MORE: Kearney completes double deadline day swoop

He said: “When you are younger these are the kind of places that you dream of playing in but for us this isn’t as big a game as, perhaps, Hamilton at home. It is another chance for us to get points more than anything else, although it is against someone not that close to us in the table. It is not as big a game as some others but going to Ibrox is still a massive occasion.

“Celtic Park was a tough one for us because we lost a few goals early on. It would be nice to try and sit in a bit and make it hard them rather than leave ourselves exposed.”

Kick-off at Ibrox this afternoon is 3pm.