Robinson: time to put things right

Well manager Stephen Robinson still believes his side have time to get it right before heading to Hampden for a shot at Scottish Cup glory.

The heavy loss couldn’t have come at a much worse time as the normally solid defence leaked five goals against a Saints side that has struggled for goals all season.

Despite that the Northern Irishman is confident his team can return to watertight-ways when they face freescoring Celtic on May 19.

He said:“I thought we started quite brightly, we had a couple of good half-chances and moved the ball well.

“Then they had five crosses and scored from three of them.

“The consolation for me is that, in 36 games, I’ve never seen us defend as poorly as that.

“We haven’t had 18 clean sheets this season defending like that.

“St Johnstone took their chances and Steven MacLean was excellent but we were punished for every mistake we made.

“The good news for me is that I know they can be rectified.

The manager certainly has food for thought with some players failing to take their chance to impress just days before one of the club’s biggest fixtures in recent years.

He added:“We were chasing lost causes after the first half and not too many people came out of this game with credit for us.

“It’s not often we have 13 or 14 players on that pitch who don’t perform to any level or intensity for us.

“There wasn’t a lot in the game early on but they score from those crosses and we’ve made a reputation for being able to deal with that. We’re good at it.

“You have days like these and this is the first I’ve had this season.

“It was uncharacteristic of us because we didn’t do the basics – we normally throw our bodies on the line, squeeze the space well and put balls in behind and we just didn’t do any of that today, collectively or as individuals.”