Stephen Robinson admits St Mirren have made their bid to qualify for Europe next season even harder for themselves after their mistakes were punished in the capital.
But the Saints manager insists they can still recover and pip Hibs or Hearts to earn a crack at the continent next season.
With fourth spot in the Premiership guaranteed a place in the Europa Conference League, and fifth place more than likely to do the same should favourites Celtic lift the Scottish Cup, it’s still all to play for with the Buddies just three points behind Hibs and four off the Jambos.
Robinson’s men can get their tilt at a European adventure back on track this weekend when they welcome Hearts to the SMiSA Stadium in another pivotal clash.
And the St Mirren boss is confident home comforts can help his side get back to winning ways, as long as they cut out the individual errors that cost them so dearly in Leith.
Robinson told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “Our prospects for Europe aren’t as good as they were before the Hibs game, obviously that goes without saying.
“But you can pull that back very quickly. There’s 12 points still to play for and we’ve got Hearts at home coming up this weekend. We’ve been very, very good at home.
“We need to press more aggressively than we did in the first 20 minutes and you just have to hope and pray we don’t make individual errors.
“Two individual errors cost us but that happens in football. I’ll take my share of the responsibility.
“I want us to keep the ball from throw-ins. I don’t want us to just chuck it down the line, I want us to try and switch play. Unfortunately we got caught on it and they go through and score.
“The second is a set-play where we let a runner go. They are goals we don’t usually concede, which is frustrating.
“Without them really hurting us outwith the two mistakes we made, our response to that was terrific.
“They missed a few chances over the bar, but Trevor Carson didn’t have loads of saves to make.
“Curtis Main has a great chance just before we scored to get one back as well. We should have taken something out of the game.
“You don’t get a standing ovation from your fans as players if you give up and fall apart. We didn’t do that.
“Our chances are still good [to qualify for Europe] if we play like we did for the last 60 minutes against Hibs.
“If we play like we did in the first 30, they won’t be.”
The Buddies are down to the bare bones up front for the remaining four games of the campaign, with long-term absentee Jonah Ayunga’s temporary replacement up front Tony Watt now ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering ankle ligament damage in training.
Robinson was pleased with Alex Greive’s performance after stepping in to replace Watt, with the New Zealand international grabbing a second-half goal that brought the Saints back into the match.
The St Mirren gaffer was also impressed with academy forward Lewis Jamieson, who made a bright cameo appearance as a second-half substitute.
Robinson said: “It’s difficult for any team when you lose two very good centre forwards. But we don’t want to use that as an excuse.
“We have very good young boys in the squad still. I thought Lewis was excellent when he came on.
“Lewis gets a chance every day in training. He’ll get chances to play when he deserves them and he was very, very good when he came on.
“Lewis is a young boy, making his way in the game. We really, really like him and we want him to stay.
“The boys get chances to prove to me they deserve to be in the team every day in training. I thought Alex and Curtis were excellent up front too.”
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