St Mirren will face no pressure to win at Tynecastle tonight, despite their victory at Ibrox just four days ago.
That is the view of manager Stephen Robinson, who is preparing his team for the intense atmosphere of Gorgie after their success at Rangers.
Despite proving his team can defeat clubs with larger budgets, Robinson believes the expectation remains on Hearts as the battle for a top-six Premiership place intensifies.
In his three years at St Mirren, Robinson’s lowest points tally against teams finishing in the top six was 14 last season. This term, his team has already earned 19 points against current top-six sides, including wins over Rangers, Aberdeen, and Hibernian.
The training ground at Ralston was positive yesterday following St Mirren’s 2-0 victory over Rangers.
“It always is,” Robinson said of the good atmosphere. “We don’t get too high with wins and too low with losses. We know what we’re trying to do.
“My aim at the start of the season is to stay in this division. When people say that’s not ambitious, the level of resources we have and where the club is, that has to be our first goal.
“So, we put things into perspective when you win and when you lose, and we continue that aim.
“We’ve said that there’s no pressure on us [at Tynecastle]. The pressure is on the other teams. Hearts are expected to be a top three, top-four side.
“We aren’t. Maybe we are [a top-six side], but we shouldn’t be. We’ll go and enjoy the game again like we did at Ibrox. We’ll go and play the way we play. We’ve got an identity.”
Robinson also commented on Philippe Clement’s departure from Rangers, highlighting the human side of football management.
“There’s a human side to football management as well that people don’t see,” he said. “They don’t see the kids.
“They don’t see the family and the sacrifices people make in it. You’re just a target, and the narrative is you have to take that.
“That’s just what’s expected in this job. It doesn’t make it any easier. We do expect it, and we deal with it.”
Killian Phillips, Caolan Boyd-Munce, and Ryan Alebiosu will be assessed before tonight’s match.
Alex Iacovitti (hamstring) remains unavailable and Evan Mooney will have ankle surgery next week. However, Robinson has not ruled out using the young forward against Celtic on Saturday if squad numbers are low.
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