Celtic's 'time wasting' tactics proof St Mirren rocked champions for Stephen Robinson

STEPHEN Robinson admitted he was bitterly disappointed that St Mirren failed to take a point from their William Hill Premiership opener against Celtic at Parkhead yesterday – and claimed the fact that the Scottish champions had been time wasting at the end showed how well his side performed.

The Paisley club, who fielded no fewer than five new players, competed well with their Glasgow rivals in the first league outing of the 2025/26 campaign and created several opportunities to break the deadlock. 

However, substitute Luke McCowan put the Scottish champions in front when he netted a deflected shot from the edge of the visitors’ penalty box with three minutes of regulation time remaining.

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“It was disappointing because we lost to a deflection,” said Robinson. “I think our level of performance showed that Celtic were trying to waste time in the last five minutes of the game. That showed the level of threat that we were posing at that stage.

“Defensively, I thought we were superb, very, very well organised. People use that as a slight against St Mirren sometimes, but that is one of the basics of management, get your team organised.

(Image: Andrew Milligan) “We said we would have five or six opportunities to break and we did. Some we picked the right option, some we didn’t. Yeah, it is disappointing to lose to a deflection. If somebody had scored from 25 yards you hold your hands up. But they didn’t.”

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Robinson added, “We didn’t come here thinking that was a gimme. I hate the word and I hate the phrase. Every game I go into I think I can win. We showed that. We didn’t sit back the whole game, we pressed.

“I think we caused Celtic problems at times. But they have a heck of a lot of quality. If you look at the substitutes they are bringing on in comparison to ours then if makes it a tough task.

“We will go again on Saturday. We have got a so-called tough run, but we have beaten all these teams before so we don’t go in with any kind of fear. We were well-organised, were prepared to run and die for each other and showed quality on the ball.”