Spur my Buddies on

the sidelines at Dundee United.

Robinson said: “I made a very strong case on transfer deadline day that if we hadn’t got another striker in we’d have been one injury away from a crisis. It’s important we got Tony in and he’s got a couple of good weeks training under his belt now. He played a good part of the Celtic game which hopefully gets him up to speed too.

“We know what a talented boy he can be. Tony puts a ceiling on what he can do, more than his body and his talent. He’s got a lot of talent and has proven that. When he’s fully focused and at peak fitness he’s very difficult to play against.

“It’s a case of convincing Tony all the time that he can do more than he is doing. He’s not at his maximum right now, which is the case for a lot of footballers, not just him.

“It’s hard to hide behind the data these days. Every training session is tracked and we can watch the younger players even from home. There’s no hiding place and Tony has bought into that. He’s fitted in really well here – if anything, he’s taken over to be honest!

“He’s got a lot more belief. He’s played a lot more games in his career now and now it’s about getting him up to max speed.

“Him and Curtis could be a real threat with their goals and physicality.”

After a dismal run of form, Motherwell present something of an unknown challenge tonight with interim boss Stuart Kettlewell leading the side for the first time.

Robinson is wary of an immediate upturn in fortune following Steven Hammell’s sacking, adding: “It’s a difficult one because I’ve played against teams who have lost their manager and all of a sudden the boys who thought they were out of the picture are galvanised.

“We have to make sure we are prepared for that. We’ll go there with the utmost respect.

“We know they’ll be playing for their futures with new managers being touted about.

“Stuart has put his name in the hat for the job so they will have their bit between their teeth.

“But I expect my players to show the same performance as they did against Celtic and then we can concentrate on ourselves.

“We have to play our game and what Motherwell do isn’t for us to dictate. We know their strengths and weaknesses and we’ll look to exploit them.”

There’s always a wee added incentive for players going back to their former club Stephen Robinson