St Mirren look to add to unforgetable season live on BBC

It started promisingly with their first European campaign since 1987 and trips to Iceland and Norway.

By autumn, though, that campaign was behind them and three summer signings, defenders Shaun Rooney and Jaden Brown and striker Kevin Van Veen, had left the club amid three unrelated court cases.

How did Robinson deal with that?

”It’s not something they teach you on the Uefa pro-licence course,” he said. “It’s certainly been the most testing season off the pitch.

“All the boys I bring in, I have a bond with them. You try and get to know them as much as you possibly can, so it’s not nice to see people losing their jobs.

”I think the Uefa courses give you the bare minimum. I feel that managers should be contributing given the reality of problems they encounter and how they deal with them, whether it’s successful or not, and how you’d do things differently.

”But, with a little bit more experience, you do learn to deal with it, you learn to just compartmentalise it a little bit, and deal with what you can in front of you.

”You have to be there to try and support people at the same time, so really, really difficult in terms of dealing with people but also the effect it has on the rest of the squad, and trying to lift them again, and I think the players have been super.”

The European campaign, joyous but short-lived, put its strains on players and staff alike.

”It was always a challenge for a club of our size to reach Europe, to compete in Europe, to build a squad for Europe so quickly,” Robinson explained.

“The infrastructure at the football club was not set up to be in Europe, so a lot of pressure on the staff at the football club, both football and non-football staff.

”So to be two points off where we were last season at this stage in the league is an absolute testament to the character of the squad and the football club as a whole.

“You can’t expect St Mirren continually be a top-six side with the resources and the size of other football clubs, but you have to make the cut more often than in the past.”