Boss Stephen Robinson pleased with options at St Mirren despite injury concern

Stephen Robinson is thrilled with the quality in reserve at St Mirren.

As he nurses an injury worry over Keanu Baccus, however, the Saints manager admitted quantity is more of a concern.

The Paisley side moved third in the William Hill Premiership courtesy of a 1-0 home win over Dundee.

Saints edged victory without captain Mark O’Hara (foot) and Marcus Fraser (ankle).

Fellow mainstay Baccus joined the casualty list in Friday training and is unlikely to make next weekend’s trip to Kilmarnock.

Roland Idowu and, in his first start, Liam Donnelly proved excellent replacements in the middle of the park.

But Robinson confessed he could do without any further bad news bulletins.

He said: “With Mark, we don’t know. He’s had an injection.

“We’re hopeful he could be fit or at least available for the bench against Kilmarnock.

“Marcus is making great progress, defying the odds. Keanu is a worry. He did it right at the last kick of training with his groin.

“We’re not expecting him to be fit next week. Liam Donnelly obviously had to play sooner than we wanted him to.

“I thought he was excellent. Secured the game for us. Ticked it over really, really well. And he’s not fully fit yet, he needs minutes.

“Roland came in and replaced Mark and was terrific.

“So we’ve got a squad with like-for-like replacements at the minute.

“But don’t have a lot of numbers so we certainly can’t afford any other ones.

“We’re always walking a tightrope with our squad size. But, certainly, the quality we have in it is top-class.”

In a successful September, St Mirren won back-to-back league games and reached the Premier Sports Cup last four.

Only Celtic, on opening weekend, have defeated them in 18 matches stretching back to April.

“We’re enjoying the momentum,” said Robinson.  “We firmly refocused on the league again after the cup.

“We’ve got a really difficult game away to Killie, who had a tremendous result at Dundee United, so we stay grounded.

“We know there are always things we can improve at.

“That’s the secret to our relative success – keeping pushing, never being happy.”

Dundee were left with a youthful starting front three when captain Simon Murray fell sick on Saturday morning.

Joe Westley (20), Ashley Hay (22) and Cam Congreve (21) drew a blank against a solid Saints defence.

“Simon scored 16 last year, he got off the mark and was beginning to look like himself again after missing the first few games,” noted boss Steven Pressley.

“Of course, that’s going to affect us. But we’ve got other players I think can be effective.

“I thought they equipped themselves well; it was just those final moments.

“I think we’re quite a young team in general but that’s part of the journey.

“We hopefully will improve and develop these players.”