Stephen Robinson has eyes on another top-six finish with St Mirren

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson believes his side have earned the right to dream of a second consecutive top-six finish in the Scottish Premiership after their victory at Ross County.

Despite playing the last half hour with 10 men, the Buddies claimed all three points thanks to Oisin Smyth’s late free-kick.

That consolidated sixth spot in the table, with the likes of Motherwell and Dundee United still well within reach just ahead of them in the standings.

“It’s funny how the narrative goes, because after 18 games we’re only two points behind last season – and that was the best start in 35 years,” Robinson said.

“We maybe haven’t won the same amount of games in a row. We’ve won two, then lost a couple instead.

“There’s a lot of positivity, a lot of good things – and the credit has to go to this group of players.

“We’ve had so many trials and tribulations off the park and they’ve not used it as an excuse.

“They didn’t use going to 10 men as an excuse, and it was the same at Perth. I’ve nothing but the utmost respect for them and owe it to them to try to strengthen again in the January window.

“We can hopefully continue to look forward.”

On the other hand, Ross County manager Don Cowie was left frustrated that his side did not play to the conditions more effectively.

The defeat was their fourth in a row, and a record of just four goals in their last eight matches shows just how valuable those three points could have been.

However, Cowie admits that his players did not make the most of either the weather or their numerical advantage after Scott Tanser’s red card.

“At half-time I told the players to play to the conditions, and right after half-time we put it into their box and get a goal from it,” he said.

“That’s how simple it can be on a day like this. I think we overcomplicated it at times in the first half, but we got our rewards from doing the basics really well.

“Unfortunately we didn’t do enough after that to get a second goal.

“At no stage did we make our advantage count. We created one really good opportunity at 1-1, but barring that we didn’t ask anywhere near enough questions.

“St Mirren played the conditions really well, and dealt with going down to 10 men really well.”