St Mirren have given themselves good top-six chance – boss Stephen Robinson

Posted Sunday, April 02, 2023 by PA

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson believes his players have given themselves a great chance of clinching a top-six place in the cinch Premiership after beating Livingston 3-0.

Two first-half penalties from Mark O’Hara and a Tony Watt strike had the home side three goals to the good by the break and they eased through to a comfortable victory.

The result leaves the Paisley side in fifth place with three games to go until the split and Robinson is confident they can claim a top-half spot if they can maintain this level of performance.

He said: “We need to go and get results. It’s simple. There’s a lot of competition, a lot of good teams.

“We don’t get too carried away. We don’t listen to too much noise when we lose games and when we win we remind each other what we did well. So if you stop doing those things, you don’t win football matches.

“Nobody will get carried away. But to be sitting here in fifth place with three games to go is an incredible achievement given what’s been going on over the past year at the club financially and the cuts that have been made.

“That’s credit to the players and I’m desperate for them to finish off the season and get what they deserve.”

Robinson helped Motherwell to two cup finals and was part of Northern Ireland’s coaching team at Euro 2016 but believes reaching the top six would top all of that.

He added: “It would probably be my biggest achievement. I’ve got to cup finals, coached at the Euros and finished third and got into Europe but with what’s been going on here in terms of the cuts, I’d be delighted if we could do it.

“It’s probably the best group. I had a very good group at Motherwell that got to two cup finals and this reminds me of that attitude and desire. And what never gets recognised is the high level of quality that the players have.”

Livingston manager David Martindale felt his players never recovered from conceding an early penalty and were ultimately well beaten.

He said: “To say it was a bad start and got worse is probably a good analogy.

“We got a bit spooked from it and St Mirren got a lot of energy from it. We lose a second goal from a quick throw then a third from a penalty again.

“They were cheap goals and we didn’t give ourselves any opportunities. We let ourselves down defending our own area in the first half and we won’t get anywhere in football playing the way we did.”