'Careful investment & Robinson's tactical nous seal extraordinary achievement'

Yahoo

15-04-2025

[BBC]
So it happened. With Roland Idowu's late rocket and a goalless draw between Motherwell and Hearts at Fir Park, St Mirren's 3-2 win over Ross County secured a historic third consecutive top-six league finish. Cue wild celebrations at the SMISA Stadium.
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The social media response was predictable: comments about "over celebrating" a mere top-six finish. But context matters in football more than any other sport.
For St Mirren, this isn't just another season. It's the culmination of years of steady building, careful investment, and Stephen Robinson's tactical nous overcoming financial limitations. When he took over and lost eight of his first nine matches, who would have predicted this trajectory? Robinson himself called this his "biggest achievement" - above cup finals and European qualification elsewhere.
Only ourselves, Celtic, and Rangers have managed top-six finishes in each of the last three seasons. Robinson has built something special in Paisley.
What makes an achievement worth celebrating isn't some universal standard. What matters is the journey, context and odds overcome. For a club that starts each season with survival as the primary objective, establishing ourselves as consistent top-six performers is extraordinary.
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Speaking of Hearts, it's worth reflecting on how they missed out. In a game where both they and Motherwell had everything to play for - a win for either would have secured that coveted sixth place - we witnessed a spectacle that lacked urgency and conviction as the sides went out with a goalless whimper.
Robinson deserves immense credit. Working with a backroom staff that squeezes every drop from limited resources, he's created a team greater than the sum of its parts. As he said: "Nothing has gone our way this season - we've had to fight for everything."
Our financial resources are a fraction of what most of Premiership clubs enjoy, and our issues both on and off the field well documented. Yet here we are, consistently outperforming teams with significantly deeper pockets, demonstrating a level of stability that many better-funded clubs can only dream of achieving.
Every year St Mirren's first objective is to stay in the league. The fact we've not only done that but established ourselves as a genuine top-six club is remarkable - especially with a thin squad, missing key players, and being at the top of the SFA referee apology table.
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If you can't celebrate that, what can you celebrate? Football is emotion, community, shared experiences. The day fans stop celebrating achievements - whatever those might be in their club's context - is the day the soul leaves the sport.
What's most amusing is that we're actually pretty decent against supposedly superior teams. This season alone, we've taken 19 of our 41 points from fellow top-six sides. Seven from Hibs, six from Rangers and six from Aberdeen.
For a club punching above its weight, we seem quite comfortable trading blows with the big boys.
Andrew Christie can be found on the Misery Hunters podcast.