Stephen Robinson: St Mirren ready to get back to business after cup celebration

Stephen Robinson encouraged his St Mirren players to revel in their Hampden win – but now expects them to show the focus and determination to improve their league form before they return to the national stadium.

Saints set up a Premier Sports Cup final meeting with Celtic on December 14 when they beat Motherwell 4-1 last Saturday.

But Robinson, who twice led Motherwell into cup finals against the Hoops, has quickly set his players new targets ahead of Saturday’s visit of Hibernian.

The Buddies sit eighth in the William Hill Premiership after collecting one point from their previous four games.

“The boys had a night out after the game, deservedly so,” Robinson said. “They worked very hard. The cup started a long, long time ago for us so we’ve got through the hard way and the game was closer than the score suggests.

“It was a tough game against a really, really good Motherwell side that we were able to be clinical against.

“So it was important that they enjoyed the moment. Moments like that don’t come around very often in people’s careers.

“So they’ve done that on the Saturday, but we were back again on the Monday, ready to play, ready to train and they’ve shown a great attitude.

“This group wants to keep achieving, wants to be a top-six side again for four years in a row.

“We enjoyed the weekend, enjoyed the result and now we’re back to business again. We’ve had to put that to bed. I’ve made very sure that the players are fully focused on the league now.

“We haven’t got the results we wanted. We’ve had good performances and what we showed against Motherwell was, when we’re clinical, we’ll win games of football. We haven’t been clinical enough in the league.

“So that’s how we turn those good performances into wins and hopefully starting to do that on Saturday.

“Training’s been good, it’s been sharp and now everyone’s playing for a place in the final but ultimately also to make sure we start climbing the table and getting points.”

Goalkeeper Shamal George is a doubt for Saturday’s game, while captain Mark O’Hara is unlikely to feature.

“We just felt the three games in a week has aggravated his foot,” Robinson said. “We’re confident it’s only going to be this game. It’s something we’re hoping will settle down quite quickly.”