St Mirren can ‘play without fear’ as they chase third successive top-six finish

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson has encouraged his team to play without fear as they chase an odds-defying hat-trick of top-six finishes.

The Buddies have taken four points from four matches against both Glasgow and Edinburgh teams and can close the gap on sixth-placed Motherwell if they win at Fir Park on Saturday.

St Mirren are also behind Hearts and Ross County but their run-in gives them a good chance, on paper, of picking up positive results before the split.

After facing his former club, Robinson will lead his team into games against Kilmarnock, Dundee and County as they look to upset the odds and finish the pre-split fixtures above at least one of Scotland’s natural big six clubs.

“Our goal every season should be to stay in the Premiership, that should be our top goal, and success is staying in the Premiership,” he said.

“Nothing has changed because we’ve got two top-sixes in a row. People have to remember it was 40 years before that happened, and we’ve done it twice in a row.

“Doing that more often than the 40-year period is the long-term aim of the football club of course, so we’re under no pressure.

“The teams that put the millions into the club and have big individual backers are under the biggest pressure.

“We can go and enjoy the game, enjoy playing the way we do, and we’ll play with everything and give absolutely everything to make sure we are a top-six side three years in a row, but we can play without fear, we’re not the ones under pressure.”

Saints were very close to getting something from their match against Celtic last time out. Scottish Football Association head of referees Willie Collum admitted they should have had a penalty when 3-2 down with three minutes left but the match officials did not agree and they ended up with a 5-2 loss.

Robinson wants the same type of approach when he returns to Fir Park to face a Motherwell team under fresh management in the shape of Michael Wimmer.

He said: “We have everything to gain. I said that before the Celtic game, the performance showed that they played without any kind of fear and now we need to do the same against the teams in and around us, which is the reason that we maybe haven’t cemented a top-six place.

“We’ve had good results against the teams above us, we’ve beaten Hibs, we’ve beaten Aberdeen, we’ve beaten Hearts early on in the season as well, we’ve beaten Rangers.

“So we’ve had really, really good stand-out results but these teams in and around us now will be the key to getting into the top six.

“If you can take six points off the teams in and around you, usually, on average, you’ll finish above them. We haven’t done that. We’ve got an opportunity to do it over the next four games.”