Craig McLeish applauds St Mirren for sticking to game plan after Aberdeen win

Craig McLeish saluted his St Mirren players as they spoiled Stephen Robinson’s hopes of a winning return to Paisley by beating Aberdeen 2-0.

Goals in either half from Jonah Ayunga and Alex Gogic made it back-to-back wins for Saints, who moved level on points with ninth-placed Aberdeen as both sides battle to climb clear of the relegation zone.

Dons boss Robinson was returning to his former club for the first time since swapping the Buddies for Aberdeen last month.

And McLeish, who was recently confirmed as St Mirren’s caretaker manager until the end of the season, felt the win was just reward for their recent hard work.

He said: “I’m delighted for the boys to get this result and I’m especially pleased after the first-half performance.

“We managed to execute the game plan that we put in place after four really good days on the training pitch.

“The next bit was that we had to go and perform, and I thought the first half was excellent.

“I couldn’t have asked for any more from them. The only disappointing thing was that we could have maybe come away with another goal from the set-piece chances we created.

“Then the only frustrating thing is that a little bit of anxiety maybe creeps into our game in the second half and we start to sit off the game a little bit.

“My message at half-time was to keep aggressive and stay on the front-foot. I’m trying to keep the lads being brave and sticking to the game plan so that anxiety doesn’t creep in.

“I knew Aberdeen would change something in the second half but I was delighted with the way we saw out the game and felt we deserved our second goal.”

Saints took the lead five minutes before the interval. Ayunga was first to a loose ball, cutting swiftly inside before drilling a low finish into the bottom left corner.

And the points were secured seven minutes from time when substitute Scott Tanser’s in-swinging corner picked out Gogic, who nodded an unstoppable effort high past visiting goalkeeper Per Kristian Bratveit.

Robinson admitted there were no excuses for Aberdeen’s insipid display.

“It wasn’t good enough,” he said. “What I saw from the boys on the training pitch during the week wasn’t what I saw from the boys during the game.

“We made changes at half-time and got a reaction.

“I’m certainly not saying that it was a performance I want my Aberdeen team to look like moving forward, but it was an improvement. There was more of a physicality in the front areas, we got balls into the box, and we had players running in behind.

“We conceded two goals from set-pieces and ultimately that has been our Achilles heel all season.

“We’re all under pressure between now and the end of the season. No team is too good to go down.”