Stephen Robinson: St Mirren have ‘proved we can beat’ Rangers

Stephen Robinson believes St Mirren will take a recent blueprint for success against Rangers to Ibrox when they meet in the William Hill Premiership on Saturday.

The Buddies beat the Light Blues 2-1 in Paisley on Boxing Day with a dramatic last-gasp goal by Caolan Boyd-Munce to take three valuable points in their quest for a top-six finish.

Robinson’s side are in sixth place following the goalless home draw against Hibernian last Sunday, but above Motherwell and Kilmarnock on goal difference alone, and he is looking to build on that in Govan.

He said: “We proved only a few weeks ago that we can beat them, deservedly so in my eyes.

“We were very good first half, they were very good second half, and then we came strong again.

“You have to defend well. They’ve got a lot of talent up front, a lot of spark up front, Vaclav Cerny is a big threat, and they’ve got other players that can win games on their own.

“So we’re aware of that but if we press properly and we stay in the game then we believe we’ve got threats of our own in the forward areas, in the wing-back areas.

“Ryan Alebiosu will be fit and available after coming off at half-time (against Hibs), and he gives us that extra pace going forward.

“Obviously it’s an away game at Ibrox. The expectation will be on Rangers to come out and play. And obviously there’ll be spaces there to for us to play as well, there’ll be space in behind.

“Rangers will play and try and dominate the game and dominate possession, which is fine for us. We’ve got players that can hurt the spaces in behind, so it has to be the same level of defensive performance.

“We have to defend well, we have to do the simple things. We’ve defended much better in recent weeks. And then we have to believe when we land on the ball, which we have done in in the last two games and in the previous game against Rangers.”

Rangers return to Ibrox for the first time since they lost to Queen’s Park in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup fifth round to pile further pressure on boss Philippe Clement.

“We have to concentrate on us,” said Robinson.

“We know what Rangers are. They’re a good side. They’ve got good individuals.

“Rangers are expected to win, they should turn up and beat us nine times out of 10.

“So the expectations are obviously on Rangers, but that’s up to us to manage that and then counter that with our own ideas.”