Stephen Robinson thrilled with St Mirren display in win over Hearts

Posted Sunday, September 24, 2023 by PA

Manager Stephen Robinson was delighted with St Mirren’s performance as they extended their unbeaten start to the cinch Premiership season with a 1-0 win over Hearts.

Ryan Strain netted the only goal after seven minutes but St Mirren had three further goals ruled out over the course of an excellent display.

After recording back-to-back victories, the Buddies remain in second spot in the table – two points behind leaders Celtic and four ahead of Motherwell in third.

It took a fantastic stop by goalkeeper Zach Hemming to deny Lawrence Shankland in the final seconds of stoppage time and clinch victory but Robinson believes his team were well worth the three points.

He said: “We should have won by more, we had chances in the first half where I thought we were very dominant and we had three goals disallowed – that would suggest we deserved to win the game.

“Hearts are a very good side, they were always going to have spells in the game and they proved that.

“When we needed to be resolute we were and we defended very well as a team, the back five were excellent and Zach Hemming made a superb save.

“We made it harder than it should have been but I’m very, very pleased with the performance and the result.”

Despite having their celebrations cut short by having a goal disallowed on three occasions, the St Mirren boss was reluctant to point the finger at the officials.

Instead, Robinson felt it was a good indicator of the attacking threat posed by his team.

He added: “I’ve not seen them back, obviously if it’s offside then it’s offside – the lines don’t really lie do they?

“The other ones I’m miles away so it’s hard to make a call, it looks soft to me, but we are getting in those positions, creating those chances and scoring those goals.

“Make no mistake, Hearts are a very good side, they’ve got vast resources, very good players and a good manager – that’s a terrific result and performance for us.”

Robinson insists that despite extending their unbeaten start to six games nobody is getting carried away – though he does hope the supporters are daring to dream.

“My job is to live in the real world, we’ve started well and that’s all it is,” Robinson said.

“I’ll let the fans enjoy it, let them dream and I’ll keep within the realism.”

Hearts boss Steven Naismith was frustrated as his side continue to struggle away from home.

The Jambos have won just one of six away fixtures under Naismith and they found themselves behind early on after a defensive mix-up allowed Strain to blast home the only goal.

“The biggest thing is frustration, we give up a very cheap goal and then we have three good chances that we’ve got to score – that’s ultimately what has defined the game,” he said.

“The game played out very much like we expected it to play out, in both boxes we’ve given ourselves an uphill challenge by losing an early goal and we weren’t clinical enough in the final third which has cost us.

“It’s disappointing, there’s no one person you can pick out because at times everybody has made a mistake.”