St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson hails ‘fairy tale story’ after late equaliser

Stephen Robinson spoke about a St Mirren “fairy tale” after Toyosi Olusanya kept alive their UEFA Conference League hopes with a dramatic late equaliser against SK Brann in Paisley.

The slick Norwegians got a deserved breakthrough in the 75th minute through midfielder Felix Myhre’s low drive.

However, in the 89th minute, as the home side threw everything forward Olusanya turned in a pass from fellow substitute James Scott to snatch a 1-1 draw, which Saints will take into the second leg in Bergen next week.

St Mirren are playing European football this season for the first time in 37 years and although Robinson admitted SK Brann were the better team, he was proud of everyone associated with the Paisley club.

“First and foremost, for this group of players and the club to be alive in this tie going into the away game is a fantastic story,” said Robinson, who was disappointed that Olusanya will miss the second leg for a booking which “looked like the goalkeeper ran into him”.

“It is a fairy tale story from where the club has come from,” he added.

“Young boys making their way in the game, not making fortunes of money being able to compete against a very good side with resources way beyond our dreams, so a fantastic storyline.

“How did we play tonight? We can be much, much better than we played, which is the pleasing aspect for me.

“The resilience we showed to get a result, the subs made a great impact, one sets it up and one scores, it sets the tie up nicely for next week.

“We had seven or eight players way below par but it shows how far St Mirren Football Club has come that we are disappointed with the performance against a top side and the goal keeps the tie alive.”

SK Brann boss Eirik Horneland claimed his side will need to be more “efficient” next week.

He said: “It was a tough game. I saw some good things and some things we can develop.

“We created enough chances to score more goals.

“Next week will be much the same, they will play their style, we will play our style and we have to be more efficient and keep a clean sheet.”