Stephen Robinson praises St Mirren’s players for breaking into top six

Stephen Robinson praised St Mirren’s players for overcoming a season of adversity so far to advance into the Premiership top six.

The Paisley Saints were struck by three more injury scares during Saturday’s thrilling 3-2 victory at St Johnstone.

There are fears of a long lay-off for captain Mark O’Hara, who suffered a thigh problem, while Richard Taylor and Scott Tanser were also hurt.

Robinson is already light on personnel with defender Charles Dunne out for another month and in the wake of three players leaving the club.

The Buddies parted company with loan striker Kevin van Veen and full-backs Jaden Brown and Shaun Rooney.

Yet Robinson has kept the team on track, accumulating 21 points to sit sixth after 17 games.

The Northern Irishman said: “Considering the number of problems we’ve had at the football club in terms of injuries and suspensions – all defenders bar Kevin – it’s been a real testing time for us.

“To be sitting in the top six with all the off-field problems, I credit the players.”

Robinson was cautiously positive about centre-back Taylor after he was taken off on a stretcher after 63 minutes.

“We think Richard is the one who might be OK,” reported Robinson, whose team play Ross County away on Saturday. “He just landed funny, he couldn’t feel his leg, it went completely numb.

“So you can’t take chances in that situation. Tanser was already struggling with his back and hamstring so, unfortunately, we had to make two subs there.

“Conor McMenamin was struggling with his back as well. We managed to navigate through that, which is the most pleasing aspect.

“But we think it’s a bad one with Mark, which is a real blow for us.”

O’Hara suffered a recurrence of his thigh problem deep into stoppage time when taking a penalty saved by Josh Rae.

The St Johnstone goalkeeper was penalised for edging off his line early and Roland Idowu won the game with a VAR-advised retake.

St Johnstone lost for the 11th time in the league and cannot seem to gather consistent results despite a change of playing style under Simo Valakari.

They conceded in the 10th minute to Killian Phillips but led 2-1 with nine minutes to play thanks to Makenzie Kirk and Benji Kimpioka strikes.

But 17-year-old substitute Evan Mooney equalised after 88 minutes before the visitors eventually benefited from all the spot-kick drama.

St Johnstone face a potentially pivotal clash at the bottom of the table at Hearts next Sunday.

“You can’t feel sorry for yourself,” said Valakari. “We’ve got a big fight on our hands. There is no time to feel down.

“We basically didn’t do enough to win the match. It’s our choice how we react.

“Yes, it hurts a lot but we’ll be back next week to try and make it better.”