Stephen Robinson happy for St Mirren to be ‘massive underdogs’ against Rangers

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson described his side as “massive underdogs” going into Sunday’s visit of Rangers.

Saints have taken seven points from their last three meetings with Rangers and face a side reeling from a 3-1 home defeat by Club Brugge in the Champions League play-offs.

Russell Martin is still looking for his first William Hill Premiership win as Gers manager, but Robinson stressed his side will need to play to their best and defy the odds to claim a result.

“Russell’s obviously only into the job of building a brand new team,” Robinson said. “They’ve shown that they can hurt people, they’ve shown they’ve got some really talented players.

“Make no mistake, we’re certainly the underdogs and we have to produce our best performance to get a result.

“We have to put that into perspective. Rangers are a huge football club that have spent a lot of money on building their squad. So we should not get anywhere near them. On paper, we shouldn’t get anything out of the game.

“But football’s not played on paper, as I’ve alluded to many, many times. But we are very, very respectful of the team that we face. They’re a strong side, with players with individual brilliance who can hurt you.

“For me, it would still be a massive result to get any result over Rangers. Obviously, we are massive underdogs.”

Despite their form, Rangers are odds-on favourites with bookmakers to win in Paisley, but St Mirren’s recent record against them and their three consecutive top-six finishes will furnish the home fans with optimism.

“Fans’ expectation always changes,” Robinson said. “Sometimes, maybe not warranted. Rangers should beat us, they should come and beat us most times that we play.

“There will obviously be shocks. We have to be at our very, very best to get anything out of any game against Rangers or Celtic.

“So I don’t think the expectation has changed in terms of what could or should happen.

“But we have defied the odds, if that’s what you’re meaning, of course. And we’ll have to play to that same standard again to do that against a team that’s evolving, a team that Russell’s put together and only new to the job. So we face a really, really tough task on Sunday.”

Robinson’s side came within three minutes of collecting a point against the champions on the opening day and knocked Hearts out of the Premier Sports Cup last weekend.

“Certainly, we’ve got belief against every side,” he said. “You’ve seen how we approached the game at Celtic Park, how we approached the game against Hearts, who have spent a lot of money and certainly have got big expectations for this season.

“So we prepare the same against any of those teams. We don’t fear anybody.”