Three years ago David Barron was claiming unemployment benefit to make ends meet and wondering whether he still had a future in football after being released by Partick Thistle.

Now the St Mirren player, 20, is determined to take Scottish football by storm after bagging his first senior goal for the club.

The fourth round tie against Third Division Dumbarton was only his third appearance for the first team, but he marked the occasion with a classy goal as Saints eased to a 3-0 win.

For midfielder Barron, whose current deal expires in the summer, it was a far cry from the days when he feared he would be left on the football scrapheap.

"I signed for Partick when I left school and I was there for two years and then I got released by Dick Campbell," he recalled.

"I signed on for a few weeks just to get money because I didn't know how to get by. It was just fortunate that I was still living with my mum and she helped me get by.

"I was waiting for a chance and I sent a CV to a few other clubs. My friend knew the youth manager here, Davie Longwell, and he put a word in for me and I came on trial.

"It feels great now and it proves a point that maybe it was a bad thing for Dick Campbell to let me go."

Mark Corcoran opened the scoring for Saints before Barron struck with a thunderous 25-yard effort just before the break. Any hope of a Dumbarton comeback was killed off when Billy Mehmet netted with 20 minutes to go.

Sons manager Jim Chapman had no complaints about the effort of his players. However, his new team are languishing second bottom of the table and Chappie warned that results must improve.

He said: "We have a big squad of 26 players and we need to ask why we are not achieving.

"You can't just blame the board and the manager - the players also need to look at themselves and show they are capable of taking the club forward."