St Mirren have proof they can beat Celtic – Craig McLeish

“The players have been there now, they’ve been here in a semi-final at Hampden, they’ve then went and played against Celtic in a final and they’ve come out on top,” he said.

“A lot of our message has been that we’ve been here this season, we’ve done it, we’ve shown that we can do it. Even if you aren’t favourites for a game and we know that’s not what we are this weekend.

“But, on a one-off occasion in a semi-final at Hampden, we’ve been there, we’ve done it and we’re more than capable of doing it again.”

McLeish was in the stand at Hampden that day as third in command, relaying what he could see from that vantage point to Robinson on the touchline.

He insists his focus in the dugout this time is on the job at hand rather than how another victory might improve his chances of becoming manager permanently.

However, he suggests “we’ve done a lot of positive work in a short space of time”, with St Mirren having won two and lost two, to title-chasing pair Celtic and Rangers, since he took charge.

“We’ve had a couple of decent performances recently where we’ve got to take a lot of confidence from them,” McLeish said. “Lots of parts of our game have been in a good place.

“What I’m looking for now is a 90-minute performance where we kind of string it all together.”

McLeish said it has “made our lives a little bit easier in terms of planning” that Celtic are their opponents two games in a row.

“But there’s always the bit that we know that Celtic will be doing the same and looking to tweak things from what happened in the game,” he said.

“We need to adjust some parts of it, there were parts of the game that we were really happy about.”

McLeish wants his players to be “brave” and not just “hang on to a game” or play on the counter-attack.

“It’s about the players,” he insisted. “Ultimately, I’m the guy at the side of the pitch – they’re the ones on the pitch having to make decisions.

“I get to lead them out, but then you hand it over to them on the day of the game. I’m proud that I get to do that and share that moment with them.”