Celtic v St Mirren: Stephen Robinson says securing Europe again with St Mirren would be greatest achievement

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson says earning European football against the odds would be his greatest achievement as a manager.

The Paisley side travel to Celtic Park on Saturday knowing that a positive result, along with a defeat for Dundee United, could see them snatch the last Conference League place on the final day.

Robinson insists the season has already been a huge success after a rocky start that included the club having to release three summer signings after off-field issues, and knows that the challenge facing his team at Celtic Park is enormous.

But the Northern Irishman, who took Motherwell to two cup finals, believes reaching Europe for the second season running would be the biggest thing he’s achieved since starting his coaching career.

“Yes, definitely,” he said. “With the challenges? We got a bit of stick for celebrating top six, but that was relief on my part, being clear of the relegation battle, but success is all relevant.

“Success for Celtic is different from success for us, or success for Hearts, Hibs, and Aberdeen.

“Being in the division is a success, being in the top six is a brilliant achievement, but being in Europe is something that happens once in a lifetime for most St Mirren fans.

“If we could do that twice, it would be a super achievement.”

Robinson insists the target he sets at the start of the season is simply survival, and anything above that is a bonus.

“Success for me at this club is to stay up,” he said. “People say that’s really negative, but it’s not, if you consider what we’re up against and trying to compete against.

“Being a Premiership side is the first and foremost thing to achieve.

“To be a top six side again is an incredible achievement. To get Europe again would be the icing on the cake.”

While St Mirren go into Saturday’s lunchtime game with their focus on a determined effort for a point against the champions, Celtic are aiming to put on a show for their supporters before lifting the Premiership trophy and a title party.

“I’m not going to hide the fact that the hardest challenge we could face is getting points at Celtic Park,” Robinson said. “There’s no getting away from that.

“But it’s certainly not an impossible task.

“We face a very, very good Celtic side, of course, but we faced the same challenge last year and we got beaten 3-2 in the last minute.

“We’ve caused Celtic problems without getting the result. In the last home game we got beat heavily in the last few minutes, but it was 2-2 before we had a penalty go against is.

“We need all the fine margins to go our way. We need everyone to be playing in the form they have been playing recently, and we need to start brightly.

“Celtic will be right up for this game. It will be a full house, and it will be 100 degrees inside Celtic Park.

“Everyone is coming to celebrate, so it’s our job to try and put a little bit of a dampener on that by performing and starting better than we did the other night.

“The Celtic fans are coming to party, to see someone get beaten heavily, and we have to dampen that and, first and foremost,t stay unbeaten in the top six.”