Stephen Robinson insists St Mirren face no pressure in hunt for Europe

Stephen Robinson insists there is no pressure on St Mirren as they look to seal a European spot in their five post-spilt fixtures.

The Buddies have achieved a top-half finish for the second successive season and sit fifth in the cinch Premiership, two points ahead of Dundee.

Keeping the Tayside club at bay would secure a European spot and, ahead of the visit of title-chasing Rangers on Sunday, Robinson said: “I can’t wait for the games. I am really looking forward to them.

“It is a challenge to better what we had done last season when we didn’t pick up as many points as we had hoped for.

“Obviously we have the ultimate goal of chasing European football and as I say we are looking forward to it.

“There is absolutely no pressure on us.

“We achieved what we set out to achieve but we have got into this position where European football is within our grasp and we have to believe we can do that and we do.

“We believe we are in a good position and we can get results against the other top-six sides and cement our position.

“So as much as the pressure is off, the players can relax but we know our ultimate goal is to get that European spot.”

Robinson explained his confidence in an improvement in post-split results from last season, where they lost three and drew two.

The Northern Irishman said: “It had seen so long since we got top six (1985) and it was a monkey off our back, that maybe subconsciously people thought ‘OK we have done what we set out to do.

“This season we set out to get top six but within the dressing room we set out to get Europe because you are always looking to be better than last season.

“So now the mood is we are at the start of these five games to achieve our European goal so we are very much looking forward to that challenge.”

Robinson updated his squad news saying: “We will assess Keanu Baccus who has been ill all week and Greg Kiltie has just returned to training after coming off against Celtic.

“Jonah Ayunga has gone for a scan on his knee – not the knee he had an operation on, thankfully, but it just hasn’t responded as we had hoped.

“Ryan Strain had a slight niggle but he will be fit to train so we will assess people.”

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