St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson insists Luton Town links won't distract him

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson insists he’s fully focused on the job at hand after being linked with a move to Luton Town.

The Hatters are looking for a new manager after Nathan Jones took over at Southampton, and former Luton player Robinson is reportedly in the mix.

The St Mirren manager has also been talked about as a possible candidate for the Northern Ireland job and Robinson said he’s just keeping his attention on trying to improve St Mirren.

“I am used to it now,” he said.

“I suppose credit to the players and staff that you get linked with jobs but I am focused on a very hard job here.

“We are trying to over-achieve against the odds and that is what we are doing every week and we are doing it to the best of our ability so my concentration is solely on that.”

Robinson’s time at Luton saw him help the side get promoted to the Championship in 2005 and he has fond memories of his six years at Kenilworth Road. While happy to reminisce about his time in the Hatters’ midfield, he emphasised his commitment to his current club.

“I absolutely loved it,” he said. “We got promotion, nothing but brilliant memories for me.

“I’ve still got friends there and still speak to a lot of people from there and as a player it is a great football club but there is not a correlation between management and a player.

“It is credit to the players, if you are getting linked with jobs you are doing something right.

“We are joint-fifth, we are a point off fourth so it is credit to everyone here.

“I get the blame when things go wrong and the credit when things go right but there is a lot more people involved in the whole picture.

“So we will take it as a compliment but we’ll solely focus on the job in front of us.”

The immediate task facing Robinson and his players is to take on Rangers in Saturday’s lunchtime Premiership match. St Mirren enjoyed a 2-0 home win over Celtic earlier in the campaign and are looking to add another memorable result against a Glasgow giant before signing off for the World Cup break.

“[The win over Celtic] certainly helps with belief,” he said. “You can talk all day about belief and work on the training ground about what you are going to do. The players have to carry it out.

“The bravery comes from the players not the manager and they showed tons of it against Celtic.

“They have done it in every home game, we can stay in the game when we haven’t got the ball and we are very good when we break.

“So we go into this game no differently, we are well aware of Rangers’ threat, they have players who can win a game in a moment, but we are also not fearful.”