Stephen Robinson warns Rangers 'shackles are off' as St Mirren boss targets Celtic repeat

Stephen Robinson has warned Rangers that St Mirren's "shackles are off" as they prepare to consolidate their spot in the top six.

The Buddies boss has already sealed a spot in the top group this season to bring about success to the Paisley outfit. But what Robinson has been missing is a "marquee" victory over the Light Blues this term. The Northern Irishman feels his players are ready to deliver and he's hoping they can do just that in Sunday's lunchtime kick-off and find the same form they showed earlier this term against Celtic where they ran Brendan Rodgers' league leaders close before eventually being beaten.

Robinson insists they were unlucky that day and he believes St Mirren can go one further if they play with a freedom of not having to worry about where in the division they finish.

“For a club of our size, top six is a really big achievement," he told Sky Sports. "Now we’ve got here we have everything to gain. We sit in a European spot at the moment and it’s up to us to pursue that and go and play without any fear. We’ve had a lot of good performances (against the Old Firm) without the end product of a result. Our previous game against Celtic we were excellent for the first half but their subs changed the game and wore us down.

“It’s about trying to produce those performances over the course of a whole game and not just in periods. We believe we can do that. We can take the shackles off, we have achieved our first goal and now it’s about trying to achieve European football.

“Rangers have an abundance of talent and players who can win games on their own. I was at the semi final on Sunday and they have quality in all areas of the pitch. We have shown in stages we can match that and it’s about what we can do defensively - we have to be secure but when we land on the ball be brave and take the game to Rangers. We are at home, we have a very good record there and it will be a full house.

"We are looking forward to it. We will take this game in isolation, try and put a performance on and try to get a result. We have got close but we’ve not quite had that marquee result this season that perhaps we had last year against Celtic.”