Gutted Stephen Robinson spots Celtic 'time wasting' and says that shows how good St Mirren were

Gutted Stephen Robinson spots Celtic 'time wasting' and says that shows how good St Mirren were

Robinson reckons the fact the champions were running the clock down showed how good his team were at Parkhead

Stephen Robinson at Celtic Park (Image: PA)

Stephen Robinson suffered late agony at Parkhead for the second time on the spin.

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But the St Mirren boss insisted his side can take huge heart from pushing Celtic all the way again.

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Robinson insisted it was the Hoops who were hanging on by the end after Luke McCowan’s winner with just two minutes left on the clock.

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Back in May James Forrest denied the Paisley men a famous win on the final day of the season.

But Robinson is convinced the display will be a major boost to his new look outfit.

He said: “It was disappointing because we lost to a deflection. I think our level of performance showed that Celtic were trying to waste time in the last five minutes of the game.

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"That showed the level of threat that we were posing at that stage. “Defensively, I thought we were superb, very, very well organised.

"People use that as a slight against St Mirren sometimes, but that is one of the basics of management, get your team organised. We said we would have five or six opportunities to break and we did.

“Some we picked the right option, some we didn’t. Yeah, it is disappointing to lose to a deflection. If somebody had scored from 25 yards you hold your hands up. But we didn’t.”

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Luke McCowan scores Celtic's winner late on against St Mirren

Robinson chucked in five of his new signings – but they looked like a typical Saints side.

They refused to be overawed by the champions and won’t shy away from any challenge this season.

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He said: “You mean well organised, will run and die for each other and show quality on the ball?

“If that’s what you mean then, yeah. Clubs like Celtic and Rangers are signing players who are ready to go. We are not replacing like for like and starting another cycle again after losing 50 percent of our squad.

“We bring in players who have attributes we like and we try to make them better. They stood up today.

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“We didn’t come here thinking that was a gimme. I hate the word and I hate the phrase. Every game I go into I think I can win. We showed that. We didn’t sit back the whole game, we pressed. I think we caused Celtic problems at times. But they have a heck of a lot of quality. If you look at the substitutes they are bringing on in comparison to ours then it makes it a tough task.

“We will go again on Saturday. We have got a so-called tough run, but we have beaten all these teams before so we don’t go in with any kind of fear.”

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