Stephen Robinson hails collective effort as St Mirren lift Premier Sports Cup

Stephen Robinson, speaking after St Mirren’s Premier Sports Cup final win to St Mirren.net.

Q: Stephen, huge congratulations. How are you feeling?
A: I’m wet. I’ve had to change because they threw a bucket of ice over me, and I think there was beer poured over me as well. But yeah, fantastic. It hasn’t sunk in yet, to be honest.

The amount of work that goes into this football club – the gap between us and a lot of clubs is huge. But we bridge that gap so often because of the quality of the players, the desire and the work rate of the players and staff. That’s both on-field and off-field.

We’ve got a small playing squad, a small admin staff, a small football staff, and they work tirelessly for days like this. These days don’t come around very often, so we’ll definitely enjoy it.

Q: What a way to do it this afternoon as well.
A: We started brilliantly. We said to them, “Opportunities don’t come around all the time. When you’re young, you think they do, but they don’t.” We asked them to grab it with both hands, and they did.

I’ve got to give credit to Bran and Jamie. They work on our set plays all the time. We get so many first contacts without scoring, so Marcus has saved a very, very good one for today.

After that, I thought we sat back too much. I thought they caused us too many problems on their left-hand side, so we changed it at half-time. I got my two centre-forwards to play outside their two outside centre-halves and hit them on the counter-attack. Keanu and Mark McGregor did that really well.

Tactics are easy. You can do whatever you want from the sidelines, but it’s the players carrying out the instructions who deserve the credit.

Q: The message going into the game was faith over fear. You certainly got that today.
A: They showed that right from kick-off. I said that things will go against you at times – decisions, going behind, going ahead, getting pegged back – and you have to have faith. Faith that you can run further than them, be stronger than them, outplay them, and hurt them on the counter-attack.

That’s where we believed they were vulnerable at times, with how many men they commit forward. That’s how Celtic play. I’m so proud that the players were able to carry that out.

It probably could have been a couple more if we’d taken our chances on the counter-attack. To say that after winning 3–0 is a huge compliment to the players.

Q: How proud are you of this group of players?
A: I’ve said before, I speak to people in England and they don’t understand the disparity in the league. The gap between the clubs is massive. A top-six finish is a huge achievement. Europe is unthinkable for a club like St Mirren with the finances we’re up against.

To win a trophy – everyone knows what that means. Now we can tell people we’ve done that. Three top-six finishes, a cup win as well.

Now the aim is to stay up, get enough points to stay up, and then try to push for the top six again. But to do this with this group – sometimes in life you achieve things and it’s not all together, you get lucky. This hasn’t been that.

This has been collective hard work from a group of people on and off the pitch – football staff, admin staff and players – who’ve come together and had a fantastic four years.

Q: You, your staff and the players will go down as legends at this club.
A: You worry about that when you finish. I’m not old enough to be a legend. They’re not old enough to be legends. There’s a lot more to go, hopefully.

We’ll enjoy tonight. My family suffer every week. They don’t turn the TV on. My boys hear the criticism on social media – some of it justified, some of it not.

For them to be here and see this win, I’m absolutely delighted for them. But legends? We wait until we’re finished before we’re classed as that.

Q: A word for the support – over 13,500 St Mirren fans here at Hampden.
A: It was terrific. You could hear them the whole time. Celtic outnumbered us, but our fans were outstanding.

I don’t usually take the limelight, but I couldn’t help myself today. I had to get in amongst them. My younger boy was in the North Bank holding flags, my older boy was here with my wife. My sister and family flew over as well.

You have to enjoy these occasions. It’s a special day, and one that will be remembered forever.

Q: Will you take time to enjoy it?
A: Me and my wife will probably be in bed by 11 tonight. I’ll enjoy it properly tomorrow morning when I sit down and breathe.

When you look back, it’s a tremendous achievement. I’ll try to enjoy it for a few hours, then we move on and pick a team that can be competitive and try to win three points against Livingston.

Q: Stephen, well done again.
A: Thanks.