St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson targets Ross County win in 'big week' for top six hopes

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson insists he and his players won’t assume they’ve already earned a top six place, and says they are in the middle of a “big week” in terms of their ambitions for the season.

The Paisley side defeated St Johnstone 2-0 on Saturday, putting them on 38 points and in fifth place in the table.

Dundee are six points behind in sixth position, and seventh-placed Hibs trail Robinson’s side by eight points, though both hold a game in hand. Aberdeen sit a place lower down, 11 points behind St Mirren.

After Saturday’s win, the team are back in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Ross County, with a home game against the Dons to follow on Saturday.

Robinson said his first priority is to make sure St Mirren are clear of the relegation dogfight, but conceded that the next few days could be crucial for the team.

“Are we safe for tenth place yet?” he asked. “Once that’s done I’ll worry about top six.

“I agree it is a big week. But as every manager says, it’s one game at a time.

“We need to approach this Ross County game properly. They’ve got a new manager in Don and we have to be prepared.

“They’ve got three very good strikers that they played on Saturday. We need to make sure we try and get points there before we worry about the next one.”

The Northern Irishman reiterated his belief that a second successive top-six finish would be “an incredible achievement” with the league success he delivered last season being a first for the club since the split was introduced.

And while Robinson was proud of the results St Mirren have delivered so far, that wouldn’t change anyone’s opinion on the challenge ahead.

“It’s certainly better than looking up the way and worrying,” he said.

“Look, we’ve had a very good season, a really, really good season but we want to finish it off. We don’t want to think we’ve already done something before it has been achieved.

“We’ve got some hard games coming up and every one is different. The opposition is either fighting for their lives or trying to get into the top six and that’s the same throughout the league.

“We just have to be disciplined and remain focused., We know what we want in the dressing room, though I don’t go shouting about what we are trying to achieve.

“Ultimately, we need to stay in the division. Once that’s secured, we try to get top six and then after that you worry about where you can take the club from there.”

Robinson revealed that Mark O’Hara is on track to be involved in the squad for Tuesday after the captain had a spell out through injury, while Ryan Strain is kicking a ball again as his rehabilitation continues. He says that bringing key players back into the fold will strengthen the side at the right time after a strong start to the year.

The level of performance has been very, very good since we came back from the break. The results have matched that, mainly.

“It’s now ingrained in the boys what we want, even the newer boys who arrived in the window, and we’re starting to get that,” he said. “We’re starting to get options back to the bench and have a really good bench again and that’s what we need for the run-in.”