INJURY TOLL HURT BUDS

ST MIRREN boss Stephen RoRobinson says a pile of injuries prprevented them from hurting CeCeltic yesterday.

The Buddies performed brbrilliantly for 45 minutes against ththe champions at Celtic Park and wwent in at half-time 0-0.

But after losing Elvis Bwomono bebefore the break, Robinson had to replace THREE more players.

Scott Tanser stayed in at the hahalf-time interval, Greg Kiltie was foforced off just before Celtic’s opopening goal and, later, Richard TaTaylor was also crocked.

That disrupted Saints’ gameplplan and allowed Celtic to take cocontrol of the match.

Goals from Reo Hatate, Kyogo FuFuruhashi and Adam Idah sealed ththe points for Brendan Rodgers’ sidside but Robinson was proud of his players in the face of adversity.

He said: “The injuries stopped a bit of our momentum. Tanser and Elvis going off seemed to stop our rhythm then Kiltie and Taylor went off too.

“We maybe had five enforced changes that we didn’t want to have to make in the game.

“We were excellent for 45 minutes then got undone by two well-taken goals.

“Celtic showed their quality when they needed to.

“Hatate’s goal was a super finish then Kyogo’s movement for the second was fantastic, as was the delivery.

“There were a lot of things that we weren’t in control of in terms of the changes and the options we had. So it’s one we have to learn from.

“We’re a good side now. In the first half we passed with a purpose and broke forward. We now have five games to chase European football, which would be an incredible achievement.”