Man Utd youngster Devaney making impact with St Mirren

Jacob Devaney has started 11 Scottish Premiership games for St Mirren since joining on loan from Manchester United in February

On-loan Manchester United midfielder Jacob Devaney did not want a Scottish Premiership relegation play-off final to be part of his learning experience at St Mirren.

The 18-year-old said so when he spoke exclusively to BBC Sport last week about his time in Paisley.

That seems certain to be where Devaney ends up following the 3-0 home defeat by Kilmarnock at the weekend that leaves Craig McLeish's side four points behind the Ayrshire side before Tuesday's second last game of the season away to Aberdeen.

If so, it is likely he will take it all in his stride.

For Devaney is a young man who knows his own mind. The Barnsley-born Republic of Ireland international went against club wishes to accept the chance to join St Mirren for the second half of the season.

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A number of team-mates from the United Under-21 side he captained in the first half of the campaign have struggled for regular appearances during their loan moves into the senior game.

But Devaney started for the 13th time against Kilmarnock, trusted by interim manager Craig McLeish to cope in the midfield engine room despite his tender years, just as he was by Stephen Robinson before his exit for Aberdeen in March.

"St Mirren came about really late," Devaney said of the deadline-day loan switch.

"There had been conversations with Travis [Binnion, who was in charge of United's youth teams] and Stephen Torpey, the head of academy, who said I'd had a really positive start to the season and thought the next step was to go out on loan.

"I had somewhere else lined up, which the club wanted me to pursue, but when I heard about St Mirren, it was an opportunity I wanted to take.

"I've grown up having an eye on the Scottish league and I thought it would be a great opportunity. I'm happy with how it's gone."

Family Irish connections tend to make Celtic of interest, so it is a pleasant coincidence the biggest away game Devaney has played in, and biggest standalone match, should come against Martin O'Neill's side.

Both games – in the Premiership and Scottish Cup semi-final – ended in defeat, the former by a single goal, the latter after extra-time, but, according to Devaney, there was a familiarity about the league game at Celtic Park.

"It was the first game where we were driving up to the stadium and it reminded me a lot of Old Trafford," he said.

"When I went to games there as a kid, you've got the stalls with the scarfs and there's hundreds of people outside the stadium watching you walk in.

"Playing in front of 60,000 is not something I had done before, but that was another thing that attracted me to this league.

"Once you get the first minute out the way and you've taken it all in, you blank it out. I've said that to my family, although they don't quite understand how you can do that.

"For the level I want to go and play at, playing in front of crowds like that is obviously going to help."

Jacob Devaney was called up by the Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad in March

Devaney spent the first quarter of the season in central defence at United before switching to his preferred central midfield slot.

He even started at full-back at times, which he believes is part of his United education.

"I see myself as a leader," he said. "If you put me anywhere on the pitch, I'd like to think I'd go and do a job.