Stephen Robinson insists St Mirren can shake off their Scottish Cup pain and still achieve greatness this season in the form of a top-six finish.
The Buddies matched Celtic for large parts of their last-16 clash on Saturday but were eventually blown away late on after Richard Taylor’s red card in Glasgow.
Despite the eventual heavy 5-1 scoreline, Robinson believes his side showed they can compete with the best in this division as they now turn their attention exclusively to hunting an elusive first top half finish since 1985.
Robinson told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “For 75 minutes there was nothing between the teams, which is the greatest credit I can pay to my players. They brought on three players and scored four goals. That shows the level of quality they’ve got.
“But the decision changes the game. We had limited them to very few opportunities in the first half and got punished for that mistake. But on 75 minutes things changed completely.
“Whether it’s the right decision or the wrong decision I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. After that, they’re a hard enough side to play with eleven and they open us up. We had a real go. It’s hard for me to ask any more of the players. But Celtic have top players who came on and changed the game for them.
“It’s tough to take. Don’t take anything away from Celtic, they blew us away in the last 15 minutes. But we deserve credit and we’ll take it into the last few games of the season and try to finish in the top six.
“Considering where the club was when we took over, that would be an unbelievable achievement for this group and the staff.”
Referee Steven McLean took a few minutes to reach his crucial decision to send Taylor off for handling Liel Abada’s shot, after eventually being sent to check the monitor on the touchline by the VAR officials.
And Robinson questioned whether Saints should actually have been awarded a free-kick for a foul on Alex Gogic before Celtic’s chance that swung the tie fully in the home side’s favour.
Robinson said: “It took a long time for it to be a clear and obvious error. Where does Richard put his arm? I’m not sure. The other thing is, was it a foul on Alex Gogic in the build-up? That’s what I was questioning.
“The referee wasn’t asked to check that. Are the referees refereeing the game or is the guy sitting with VAR refereeing the game? I don’t know any more. It’s not Steven’s fault if he’s not been asked to check that. I specifically asked the fourth official if we could check for a foul on Gogic because our boys were adamant.
“It sounds like sour grapes but it’s not. It’s a case of is the referee refereeing the game or is it someone else.”
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