St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson is looking for a “marquee result” against Celtic that might get his team the recognition he feels they deserve.
The Buddies booked a place in the cinch Premiership top six for a second season running with one game to spare, and take on leaders Celtic at Parkhead on Saturday.
Robinson is determined to improve on last season’s sixth-placed finish and get the Paisley club back into Europe.
“We don’t want to rest on our laurels,” he said. “We only got two points after the split (last year), so can we better that? Can we beat the team that gets into the top six when it’s decided? Can we push on and catch Kilmarnock?
“We are in a potential European position and it’s up to us to kick on. We are under absolutely no pressure, nobody should really expect what we have done.
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“We are in a position now to play without fear and try and enjoy the rest of the season.We probably haven’t had a marquee result against Rangers and Celtic. We did last season and got a lot of publicity for it, but we have beaten teams in the top half of the table.
“I don’t believe the staff and the players have had the recognition and credit for what they have done. But maybe we can get that signature result going into the last five games to really make the achievement stand out.”
The early confirmation of a top-six place has not allowed Robinson to steal a march on some of his rivals as he builds for next season.
Robinson, who could lose the likes of Keanu Baccus, Alex Gogic and Ryan Strain when their contracts expire, said: “I knew what my budget was going to be.
“We are a club that can’t go above what we have. It doesn’t really matter where we finish. We might get one extra player if we finish in Europe.
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“We know what we have got to work with. It’s the same at smaller clubs every year, you will lose five or six players in a good year, in a bad year you will lose 10,
“We will lose five or six potential starters, which is very difficult to replace. You have to replace them with the same resources but these players have grown over the last two-and-a-half years into players who can get moves to (English) Championship clubs or bigger SPFL clubs. So you are starting again with five or six coming in.”
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