The weekend is fast approaching and Celtic will travel to St Mirren this Sunday in their latest instalment of Scottish Premiership action.
Brendan Rodgers’ men have started the league campaign in stylish fashion, recording convincing victories against Kilmarnock and Hibernian while still having yet to concede after two games.
Sitting at the summit with six points, Celtic face arguably their toughest test of the campaign at the SMiSA Stadium against St Mirren, who recently went toe-to-toe over two with Eliteserien outfit Brann in Europa Conference League action.
Ultimately, they narrowly bowed out against the respected Norwegian outfit. On either side of that, losses to Aberdeen and Dundee United have left the Buddies aiming to get back to winning ways when the champions come calling.
Nevertheless, they lost just seven of their 19 home outings on league duty last season, so there is reason to suspect they will be up for the battle this weekend, a sentiment Stephen Robinson has echoed in his pre-match thoughts.
Stephen Robinson on facing Celtic
Speaking to Sky Sports, Robinson has outlined that St Mirren will look to take ‘ownership’ of proceedings against Celtic by looking to play through the third when in possession on Sunday.
Firstly, he responded when asked if the Bhoys are a tougher proposition to face this year: “They’re always a tough proposition; it doesn’t matter what stage of the season you get them at. We’ve always competed very well against Celtic and taken games right to the wire.
“On occasions, we’ve done ourselves with mistakes, so we know there has to be a large amount of focus mentally because, at any stage, they can break you down, but we also have to believe in ourselves when we land on the ball.
“Any relative success we’ve had has been from being brave and banging passes in and taking some ownership of the game.”
Later, he added on their desire to claim a result: “Look, we’ll be very good out of possession in terms of our shape and organisation; we’ve got a really disciplined squad of players, but what you do when you land on the ball is so important.
You chase the game for 96 minutes. Celtic and the top teams have that ability to break you down, and (citing) our lessons from Europe, we played Brann at home, and we played with a little bit of fear. We went away from home with nothing to lose and we were excellent, albeit we lost in the end in the 86th and 89th minute.
“We put a brilliant performance on. We have to have more of that against Celtic and really believe that we can get a result.”
Celtic aiming to continue early campaign momentum
Three straight victories have fallen Celtic’s way in all competitions this term, and maximum points against St Mirren would help to continue their valuable momentum heading into a congested period of fixtures.
With the Glasgow Derby looming next weekend, there is no room for slip-ups, even at this early stage. The international break will allow for some brief respite after that. Still, once the Bhoys return, their work juggling domestic endeavours and Champions League football begins.
Hopefully, there can be additions to the squad in the meantime, but that is likely to go on in the background while proceedings in Paisley take centre stage.
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