What Stephen Robinson learned on his St Mirren debut and a reminder in 2-0 Hearts defeat

Stephen Robinson was supposed to have mellowed in his time out of the game but the St Mirren boss’ new demeanour was tested as Hearts spoiled his first match at the helm in Paisley, taking all three points courtesy of a 2-0 win.

And, annoyed by some of the refereeing decisions, he said that certain aspects of the Scottish game remained extremely familiar.

“I think the whole game was dictated through decisions – nothing seems to have changed since I’ve been away!

“The second goal, Jak is adamant he had the ball in his hands, adamant he had the ball under full control. The big lad goes through, follows in and the ball ricochets free and I think everybody was surprised not to hear a whistle, including the fourth official, he told me.

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

“The penalty on Alex, it looked like a blatant penalty to me and the boy is on a yellow card and the red card in the first half changes the game completely, rightly or wrongly.

“I’ve yet to see that decision back but it didn’t look like there was too much malice in it to me. He didn’t know where the ball was and he turns into the player. So that’s a real debatable one.

But unfortunately we have been done by decisions today.”

Suggesting the club will consider appealing Conor Ronan’s red card, Robinson said the team will not let their first defeat since Boxing Day upend their hopes of a top six finish.

Alan Power (L) tackles Hearts' Barrie McKay. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

“In football you can control certain things but you can’t control referees’ decision making.

It’s probably best I say no more.

“We’re not going to let today’s result derail us. We can’t control decisions but we can control our reaction to it.

“The boys have been on a good run and we have to start another one [when they face Celtic] on Wednesday.

“I learned a lot about [the players] today. We have a really good team spirit. The boys fought to the end. Almost everything went against them today but they didn’t let that affect their work-rate or attitude. That will stand them in good stead.”

Get a year of unlimited access to all The Scotsman's sport coverage without the need for a full subscription. Expert analysis of the biggest games, exclusive interviews, live blogs, transfer news and 70 per cent fewer ads on Scotsman.com - all for less than £1 a week. Subscribe to us today