STEPHEN ROBINSON has praised his St Mirren players for ‘wanting to die for one another’ in their win over Celtic, saying that the victory was built on the lack of egos in his dressing room.
Robinson got his first ever win over Celtic as a manager and St Mirren recorded their first victory over them in Paisley since the 4-0 triumph in 2010 that ended the managerial reign of Tony Mowbray.
And after the game a jubilant Robinson couldn’t hide his admiration for his players’ efforts.
"The players deserve all the credit,” Robinson said.
“You can do plenty of things in training but they have to be the ones to implement that and they did it for 96 minutes with the intensity and concentration they put in.
"In a moment or a split second Celtic can change the game. We never gave them an opportunity. We didn't give their creative players any room to play and I thought we were fantastic on the break. Potentially it could have even been more.
“Against St Johnstone it was the same thing but we made individual errors. Today we didn't and previously we haven't.
"Our base is built on being very, very hard to beat and break down. You need people to buy into that, you need no egos. You need boys to run and die for each other.
"It tells you how good a squad I've got in terms of attitude when the boys who aren't playing, you watch the intensity they're at and it helps push everything on.
"We're level-headed and we won't get too carried away."
Robinson has now challenged his men to consistently perform as they did to defeat the champions.
“We’ll certainly be trying to do that,” he said.
“We’ve got the right personnel, we’ve got the right attitudes in the football club. And no egos. When they do [get too big for their boots] we slap them right down again.
“This is the system and everybody fits into it. In reality, it doesn’t matter who goes into it. We play a certain way, we try and pass when we land on it and we hit teams with our pace and energy.
“So, yes, you hope they can build on that.”
As normally happens after either side of the Old Firm taste defeat, the focus tends to be on the fallout from their point of view as they rake over the coals of what went wrong, but Robinson wasn’t concerned about the achievement of his team being overlooked in the coming days.
"I'm not too bothered about getting the credit to be honest,” he said. “I know how good a performance it was and in that dressing room there's been a lot of credit given to the players.
"But it's one performance and one result. When you start thinking you're a good team, that's when football has a way of giving you your comeuppance.
"We've beaten a lot of teams and it's been 'Hibs weren't very good on the day', 'Dundee United weren't very good on the day', Ross County etc.
"We're just quietly going under the radar and we're happy with that. There's no egos in the club and none in the dressing room.
“We’ll give them a few days off, let them re-set their batteries and enjoy today.
“Football doesn’t give you too many good moments when you’re managing clubs like ourselves, the smaller clubs. So we’ll enjoy today.
“Then there will be full concentration again for the next game.”
