St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson absolved Olutoysi Olusanya of any blame for his side’s defeat to Celtic, accepting that his team were well beaten before his striker’s red card, but he also didn’t blame Olusanya for going for the ball that ultimately saw him kick Joe Hart in the face and be ordered off.
Olusanya had the initial yellow card he received from referee David Munro for his challenge on the Celtic keeper upgraded to a red following a VAR review, but Robinson said the forward had no choice but to attempt to play the ball.
He is in no doubt that was exactly what he was trying to do as he eventually made contact with Hart instead.
“I’m not sure where he’s meant to put his foot,” Robinson said.
“We didn’t lose the game, by the way, because of the red card. We lost the game with our start and we were totally at fault for that.
“But I’m not sure where he’s meant to put his foot. Joe dives out and dives into that area. Joe gets straight up again as well. He knew there wasn’t any malice in it.
“But everything’s studied and when you slow it down it will look a lot worse.
“I haven’t seen it yet. It may look a lot worse in slow motion. I’m not actually sure what you’re meant to do, are you not meant to challenge and try and score a goal?
“He’s a lovely boy, there’s no malice in him whatsoever. We’d like him to be a bit more aggressive at times.
“He’s obviously disappointed himself. But he has to challenge, he has to try and go for the ball.
“He was causing problems on the break without really an end product. But we were 2-0 down already at that stage, but it makes a huge uphill task in the second half.
“Celtic can pick you off at will no matter what changes you make. Its playing against a top-quality side.
“We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror – we didn’t perform first period and we suffered for it.”
