Stephen Robinson hails ‘warrior’ Alex Gogic as St Mirren continue unbeaten run

Stephen Robinson heaped praise on the role played by “warrior” Alex Gogic in his high-flying side’s 1-0 victory over Motherwell in the Premiership.

The Buddies moved into second place thanks to Scott Tanser’s volley 10 minutes after half-time, though it was their defensive display that particularly pleased Robinson.

Gogic twice had to leave the field for stitches to a head wound following a nasty collision with Bevis Mugabi and after returning to the action the Cypriot defender would play a key-role in ensuring all three points for Saints.

“He’s a big player for me Alex Gogic, he’s been fantastic, a warrior,” Robinson said.

“He played against Spain on Tuesday night and came in and trained on Wednesday – that shows what type of character he is.

“Our doctor got the stitches in very, very quickly. The second time we were annoyed because he was made to come off at a corner.

“We were a bit concerned but credit to the medical team Gerry Docherty and the doc who fixed him up and he shows great bravery again.”

Having spent much of the game on the back foot, the St Mirren boss was delighted at the way his unbeaten team demonstrated their ruthless side at the other end of the pitch.

Ryan Strain delivered a pin-point cross for Tanser who volleyed home their only clear-cut chance of the match.

“It was a great piece of play, I think it was one of our only good moments of quality in the game if the truth be told,” Robinson added.

“When we did it was clinical, clinical from Tans (Scott Tanser) and a great pick out from Ryan Strain.

“You have to be clinical as Motherwell have been very tight defensively and very well organised.”

Motherwell dropped to third after losing their first Premiership encounter of the season and they will now face the daunting prospect of a trip to Ibrox followed by a meeting with Celtic at Fir Park.

Boss Stuart Kettlewell is under no illusions as to the scale of the task facing his side, but insists it is a challenge they will relish.

“We’re going to come up against two real tough games, we’ll play it the same as we do every single one – we’ll come up with a game plan that we think can affect it,” he said.

“The other side of it is that if we perform the way we did against St Mirren then I don’t worry about us.

“I think we’ll win more than we lose and that’s obviously a position we want to be in as a football club.”