Stephen Robinson hails staff for getting St Mirren’s game with Aberdeen on

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson dedicated his side’s victory over Aberdeen to the relentless effort of the Buddies staff for making it possible.

Kick-off at the SMISA Stadium was delayed an hour after referee John Beaton finally deemed the playing surface playable following a 2:55pm inspection.

Robinson’s men were on the front-foot right from the start and deservedly got themselves in front when Toyosi Olusanya fired past Dimitar Mitov in the 20th minute.

They would pass up a number of chances to extend their advantage before paying the price after Jamie McGrath struck early in the second half to draw the Dons level.

The momentum would swing again though and the hosts would show tremendous tenacity to recover to claim victory courtesy of Richard Taylor’s towering header with seven minutes remaining.

“First and foremost, we have to dedicate that to all the volunteers that have came in and worked tirelessly as there wouldn’t have been a game without them,” Robinson said.

“There was so much effort put into it and it just sums up what the club is about – everyone was together.

“We said to the players, the amount of effort and work that has been put in to get this game on by people who aren’t getting paid, we owed them a performance.”

Saints have now collected 10 points from their last four Premiership fixtures, helping them back into the familiar territory of the top half of the table.

Robinson believes his side are now getting the rewards for their displays after enduring a testing start to the campaign both on and off the pitch.

He added: “We are growing, we are getting people back fit again. We’ve had lots of off-field problems which we’ve dealt with.

“The character shown by the players and the performance against a very good Aberdeen side, who have had an incredible start to the season makes it an even better result.

“I think we’ve been very good for four or five games now and the results have proven that.”

Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin is hoping his team can learn from their first league setback of the season.

The Pittodrie side travelled to Paisley having picked up 10 victories and one draw in their opening 11 Premiership matches, however, found themselves second best against a full throttle Saints display.

They will have the chance to bounce back from the disappointment when they travel to Hibernian on Tuesday evening.

“In the first half, they came out better than we did,” Thelin said.

“I thought we started the second half well and played the way we want to play, but after that the game got open again.

“I thought St Mirren were a little bit sharper in the critical moments of the game.

“I don’t want to over analyse as we’ve done really good things this season – the most important thing is the next game now.”