Stephen Robinson: Links to Aberdeen job ‘don’t turn’ St Mirren manager’s head

Robinson says that in his younger years he would let the associations go to his head, but he again stressed the need to stay focused on the job he has at St Mirren.

The former Northern Ireland midfielder had spells at Oldham, Motherwell and Morecambe before taking over at St Mirren in February 2022.

“Yes, we did well, we did well at Motherwell too, but I can’t control what people think,” he said. “I can only focus on what’s in front of me which is St Mirren.

“At that stage, I was probably a bit excited and thought, ‘I’m really good and people want me,’ but I was a very young coach at the time. “I’ve got over 400 games under my belt now.

“There’s a lot of talk, there’s a lot of social media running the world now and fortunately, I’m not part of that. I don’t look at that, I don’t see that.”

“Once you take your eyes off the ball and what’s in front of you, the game becomes very complicated and I’m certainly not complicating the job. We need to do the basics well here and that’s my main focus.”

Despite being in the top half of the league for the past three seasons, St Mirren is ranked tenth this season, five points behind Kilmarnock, which has a relegation qualifying position.

“Right now, we are in a relegation battle,” Robinson said. “If we win the two games in hand, you’re on the cusp of getting into the top six again, that’s how strong this league is.

“So, what can we achieve? The biggest thing that has to happen at this football club is to stay in this division. People have been impressed by what we did and how we did it, but that doesn’t change the fact that success is to stay in this division.

“So I definitely wouldn’t look beyond that at this moment.”