Stephen Robinson impressed with St Mirren’s character against Kilmarnock

Posted Sunday, October 01, 2023 by PA

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson felt his side were well worthy of a point after they responded quickly to falling behind against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

Brad Lyons headed Kilmarnock in front after 19 minutes, though the Buddies secured a 1-1 draw when Kyle Magennis turned Scott Tanser’s fizzing cross into his own net.

St Mirren remained in second place in the cinch Premiership table after extending their unbeaten run to seven matches.

“I thought we were arguably the better team in the first half – we concede and we show great character to come back again straight away,” Robinson said.

“We go behind and listen, I’m miles away so my opinion doesn’t really matter, though Zach (Hemming) is telling me that it (Brad Lyons) hit him first with his arm before his header – whether that’s right or wrong I don’t know.

“In the second half, the game sort of fizzled out a little bit and we cancelled each other out a little bit.“

A point against Kilmarnock coupled with Rangers losing 3-1 to Aberdeen meant Saints now have a three-point advantage over the Light Blues, who occupy third.

Robinson has been delighted with how his team have started their league campaign and believes that picking up more points away from home has been a key factor.

“Overall I think it is arguably a fair result, it keeps us unbeaten and in comparison to last season our away form has been excellent,” he added.

“It was a real gritty, battling performance. We all know it is difficult to get results here, they have a tremendous record at home against some of the top sides – it’s a brilliant point for us today.”

Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes was frustrated after his team had to settle for a share of the spoils.

Killie have drawn each of their last three league fixtures and have failed to register a Premiership victory since defeating Rangers on the opening day.

“I thought we were the better team in the second half but over the course of the game it would be churlish for me to say we wholeheartedly deserved to win it,” McInnes said.

“We were up against a team who have had a lot of plaudits and are going well.

“I’m just annoyed we’ve not enjoyed being in front for longer, we get a break with the goal – a really committed goal from Brad.

“We’ve played 13 games now and we’ve not been second best in any of them in terms of performance.

“We feel as though we are competing really well but you know and I know that in these type of games it’s just finding that extra bit of determination, that extra bit of quality and in moments and instances in the second half if we’d shown that then we’d have won the game.”