Scottish Premier League: Dundee Derby, Claudio Braga and Steven Robinson in focus

It is not often that a club raids a rival sitting below them in the same league as their manager.

However, Steven Robinson is moving from trying to narrow the gap between 10th-placed St Mirren and Aberdeen to trying to increase it. From a team with just one win in 13 league games to another with a similarly dismal record.

The Dons sit just one place, albeit five points, above Paisley, but it is the latter’s relative success compared to their resources that has attracted chairman Dave Cormack and his board.

Prior to this season, St Mirren had finished in the top six in Robinson’s three years in charge.

Aberdeen finished fifth, one place behind last season – and won the Scottish Cup – but St Mirren this season belied their league position by lifting the League Cup, and on Sunday reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.

The Dons, under caretaker manager Peter Levein, had suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat away to Dunfermline Athletic while St Mirren overcame a tough draw at home to another Second Division side, Partick Thistle.

Robinson will miss out on a rare cup double – and a rematch with Celtic – at Hampden, but he now has the opportunity he has enjoyed for some time to manage one of the country’s biggest clubs in terms of resources.

His first stint comes against another side punching above their weight as Falkirk, almost finished sixth, arrive at Pittodrie under John McGlynn – a man who many pundits believe should be in the running to head there as manager instead.

Given St Mirren’s struggle in the league this season, some believed Robinson’s star had faded and suggested the Dons board, who looked likely to wait until the summer to make a date, had panicked at the prospect of being drawn into relegation trouble.

However, they will argue that they cannot afford to wait another six months for a manager, as they did for predecessor Jimmy Thelen, and that they have almost three months of careful vetting to choose the right man.

However, Robinson faces a tough first test against a side who have beaten Aberdeen 1-0 home and away already this season.