Stephen Robinson calls for 'organisation and discipline' to contain Celtic

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson says his side will need to stick rigidly to their game plan is they are to be successful against Celtic.

The Paisley side welcome the champions to the SMiSA Stadium on Sunday, knowing they face a side that has been ruthless in the Premiership so far, scoring 25 times and conceding just once as they have taken maximum points from six games.

Robinson is under no illusions about the size of the challenge ahead for his side and says that the best route to a positive result is to follow the tactical instructions with diligence.

“When you play teams of that calibre you know you will spend a lot of time without the ball,” the Saints boss said. “So you have to be organised and disciplined.

“We do play when we get the ball but we do allow teams to have the ball in certain areas of the pitch, so that doesn’t overly change our approach.

“You just have to do everything you do a little bit better against the top sides.

“We want to be hard to beat, hard to break down and when we land on the ball we have to pass it.

“You cannot play against Celtic or Rangers if you don’t have some sort of ownership of the game when you land on the ball.”

After last weekend’s Premiership matches were postponed, the team have had plenty of time to prepare and Robinson says everyone will know their job when they take to the pitch. He says the mentality of the players is good and that there is belief that they can be the team to end Celtic’s perfect start.

“It is something we have worked on,” he said. “We believe we are very prepared going into the game.

“I have a group of boys that want to take everything on board, they are desperate to be successful.

“There’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm and a feel-good factor about the place.

“We believe in the approach we are going into the game with – and somebody has got to take points off them.”