Stephen Robinson praised his St Mirren players for a clinical second-half performance as they eased past St Johnstone 4-0 to move seven points clear in third place.
An even first-half contest was livened up by Keanu Baccus’ stunning strike, before goals from Mikael Mandron, with a double, and Greg Kiltie helped the home side run up their biggest league win of the season.
Robinson was pleased with the way his team kept going in the second half to make sure of the win.
He said: “It’s an emphatic result, a little bit harsh on St Johnstone. But we were very clinical. The first half we looked like a team that hadn’t played for three weeks.
“It looked like a game where everyone was finding their feet a little bit. But in the second half we were much better.
“We came out, pressed better, moved the ball better and some of the goals were excellent. Really top finishes.
“When you’re not 100 per cent on it for 90 minutes but can keep a clean sheet and score four goals then it certainly means we’re going in the right direction.”
Robinson admitted finishing third, and with it the possibility of group stage European football, would be hugely significant for a club like St Mirren, but warned it was still early days.
He added: “The [UEFA] set-up has changed in terms of the group stages and the rest. But I’ve been in the game long enough to know not to look too far ahead.
“It’s a very good start but that’s all it is. We’ve not achieved anything yet.
“We’ve raised expectations with our performances and results and the hard bit is trying to keep meeting those expectations.
“If we can do that the end product could be very beneficial for the football club but we’re a long way from that.”
St Johnstone manager Steven MacLean was clearly furious with the way his team performed, especially after falling two goals behind. And he warned that some of his players might have played their last game under him.
He said: “The goals we lost are unacceptable. It’s the basics of football. In the second half, we just imploded and it looked like a couple of players chucked it.
“It is my responsibility and some of these players will be lucky if they play for me again. It is not happening under my watch and it might be I need to play young boys. I thought it was really, really poor.
“You need to show a bravery in those situations and you need people to lead. I just thought we lacked that all over.”
