Buddies boss: ‘We’ll play a lot worse and win’
Stephen Robinson couldn’t find any fury to vent despite St Mirren’s winning streak ending in comprehensive fashion.
The Buddies had scored three victories in a row, all with clean sheets, before the trip to Perth.
Robinson felt the contest was relatively even but the hosts were better in both boxes to make a significant difference.
St Mirren drop to sixth in the table after their mini-surge up the Premiership came to an abrupt end.
“It looks like a hammering but it certainly wasn’t,” stressed Robinson. “There wasn’t any ranting and raving in the dressing room because, although they have won 3-0, they had two clearcut chances and took them both.
“We probably had three or four – and took none. We have been defensively sound so far this season but we made two errors today and were punished for it.
“The result is very frustrating because there wasn’t very much in the game.
“Credit to St Johnstone, they took their chances and in the key moments of the game we were not good enough.
“We didn’t win enough first contacts in the box, so many deliveries went in there from set plays, long throws and good play.
“But we just didn’t affect their back three enough. We gave ourselves a lot to do, making mistakes and missing from three yards out.
“Previously when we’ve broken up the pitch we have made the right decisions but we didn’t do that out there.
“All in all, I believe we will play a lot worse than that this season and win football matches.”
St Mirren could have made the final quarter of an hour interesting but efforts from both Scott Tanser and Jonah Ayunga hit the woodwork.
“It is hard to criticise the players because they have given everything and we went right to the end,” noted Robinson.
“We need to dust ourselves down and go again at Hearts next week. We have missed a chance to build a bit more momentum behind us but we will go there confident.
“We just know that we have to be better in the key moments.”