Stephen Robinson admitted he is keen for St Mirren to hold on to “top talent” Richard Taylor during the final week of the transfer window following his side’s 3-0 defeat to Celtic at the SMiSA Stadium today.
Robinson’s team were soundly beaten by Brendan Rodgers’ side in the William Hill Premiership match in Paisley after conceding goals to Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Alistair Johnston.
However, the Northern Irishman, whose team were involved in Conference League qualifying this season after finishing fifth in the top flight last term, still believes he can build on what he has achieved to date.
He is keeping his fingers crossed that he will not lose defender Taylor or any other key members of his squad before the summer window closes on Friday night.
"You are always at the mercy of bigger clubs,” he said. “But I would like to keep people like Richard Taylor, who is playing incredibly well at the minute and for me is going to be a top talent.
“And there are other people in the squad who could be targeted. But we will do everything in our power not to sell anybody because we have to try and build if we want to experience what we have experienced this season in Europe."
Asked about the Celtic loss, Robinson said: "We made it very difficult [when McGregor broke the deadlock] from the second minute so credit to Celtic. What people forget about really good teams is they do the simple things really well.
"They did the simple things really well throughout the game as well as their quality. We didn't match that and if you don't put the best version of yourself out you are going to lose against Celtic and we were nowhere near our best version today.
“That [playing in Europe] is not an excuse. We didn't do the simple things well enough. There wasn't enough good performances for us to get a result. We have taken them close before, beat them before, but we were nowhere near doing that today.
"There is never a lack of application or energy. We had a big strong midfield out - I didn't have a lot of choice because of injuries. But we didn't land on second balls, we didn't win headers, we didn't do the basics of defending well enough. So there is a lot of things we have to look at."
