St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson admitted it has been a challenging period for his side after they ended a run of four straight defeats by coming from behind to beat St Johnstone 3-1 at the SMiSA Stadium.
The Buddies fell behind to Benjamin Kimpioka’s early goal but Scott Tanser’s sublime long-range effort made it 1-1 at the break.
St Mirren captain Mark O’Hara made it 2-1 with a header before substitute Jonah Ayunga scored his first goal of 2024 as he wrapped up the win in stoppage time.
Robinson was full of praise for the character his team showed in their comeback win as they stopped the rot.
He said: “It’s been a really challenging period both on and off the pitch for the club, with some things we’ve had to deal with internally. It’s been a huge challenge but everyone stuck together.
“I think from start to finish we were excellent. It followed on from the performance on Sunday. We were back to what we are.
“We should have won by more tonight, we had a goal disallowed. The character we showed, when we’ve been on a losing run, was excellent.
“After relative success last season, you try to evolve and we had a lot more possession of the ball in areas that did not hurt teams. We probably signed players to play like that as well but the reality is we were not very good at it.
“We play like St Mirren and we are right up against people. We play forward and we play in their half of the pitch. It brings energy to the stadium and that’s how we play going forward.
“Personally as a manager it’s been very challenging. We’ve had decisions go against us. A lot of things have dictated what team we put out.
“We’re back in our system now and we never lost belief.”
St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari, meanwhile, was disappointed by his side’s second-half display as he suffered his first defeat as manager.
Saints had taken an early lead and they saw further goals from Kimpioka and Adama Sidibeh chalked off in the first half but they failed to create anything after the break.
Valakari said: “We just could not get out of the opponent’s pressure in the second half. It was corner after corner, long-throw after long-throw.
“We defended actually very good but these are the moments where we need to be better – when we are suffering.
“Then when they got the second goal they got the feeling that they could defend and try to win the match.
“We are hurting by the result but we need to learn quickly as another game comes quickly.
“Two goals being taken off by the VAR, it takes a lot out of you as well but that’s part of football.
“I believe the VAR was right in that moment. We still had time to win today but we could not do it so we need to be better.”
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