St Mirren take on Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup final at Hampden Park on Sunday
St Mirren’s manager, Stephen Robinson, has shared that “faith over fear” is the team’s guiding principle as they gear up for the Premier Sports Cup final against Celtic at Hampden Park this Sunday. The Saints are set to face a Celtic team under new leadership from Wilfried Nancy, who have triumphed in both William Hill Premiership matches between the two sides this season, with each game decided by a late goal.
Despite suffering three consecutive losses, St Mirren have bounced back with a draw at Aberdeen and a home victory over Dundee United. This turnaround has given Lisburn native Robinson, the Buddies’ boss, a boost of confidence as he aims to secure Paisley’s first trophy since 2013 when the Saints defeated Hearts 3-2 in the League Cup final.
“The fans put up on all the banners, faith over fear,” said the Northern Irishman, who also expressed doubt about whether captain Mark O’Hara would be fit to play, while Dutch midfielder Malik Dijksteel’s participation remains uncertain. “Really believe in what we can do. We’ve earned the right to be here.
“We’ve had some very, very tough games, Hearts and Kilmarnock. We started the competition way, way back, it feels like about five years ago now, but such a long time ago, so we’ve earned that right.
“What I have iterated to them is you have to have faith and the how do you have faith?”.
“Show them what they’ve done. And we’ve constantly spoken about ourselves, we’ve constantly shown how we’ve created problems for Celtic.
“There will be a nervous energy, of course. We aren’t Celtic who get to every cup final or every other cup final.
“So we have to embrace the day, enjoy the day, but most of all, have faith over fear, really believe in the system, in each other, the staff and the stuff we’ve put on in preparation.
“We know they believe in that. We’ve got results in the last couple of weeks, that gives us the faith that we’re back on track again.
“So we go into the game full of hope, full of anticipation and, as I say, the faith that we can achieve a result.”
O’Hara is making progress with a foot issue that has sidelined him since the 4-1 semi-final victory over Motherwell at the beginning of November.
Robinson shared: “Mark (O’Hara) has trained. We were waiting last week to see the reaction of the second injection and that looks like it’s helped.
“We’ll see his reaction to training today, but he has been out six weeks. So it may just be a game too soon.
“It would be a huge call for me to start Mark after six weeks out and three days training.
“We would love him to be 100 per cent fit to be involved in some way for the final.
“But I also have to take other players into consideration as well and, if he’s right and I feel he can make an impact on the game, then we will involve him. If not, we won’t.
“Malik Dijksteel pulled up with an injury today so is a wee bit of a doubt.
“Liam Donnelly’s came through again. Shamal George had a sickness bug but he trained today. So, other than Mark and Malik, we’re probably at full strength.”
