A win changes the narrative completely – Aberdeen boss Stephen Robinson

Stephen Robinson has challenged Aberdeen to “change the narrative” by defeating his former club St Mirren at Pittodrie on Saturday.

The Dons have been the subject of renewed scrutiny after a frustrating 1-0 defeat at home to St Johnstone last weekend halted their mini revival and left them eighth in the table.

When it was put to him that another setback this weekend might be damaging to Aberdeen’s top-six prospects, Robinson bristled: “I’m not sure it would be a struggle after nine games to make the top half of the league!

“But, yes, of course, we want to win the game and that changes the narrative completely. We could have gone fourth with a win on Sunday but we didn’t.

“We didn’t do enough to win the game. But a win on Saturday can change that whole perspective.

“We were disappointed with the result last week and we have to win on Saturday. We’re really determined to do that.”

Robinson revealed captain and top scorer Kevin Nisbet is a doubt with a hamstring injury. The forward’s absence would be a blow given that the manager has been working hard in training this week to ensure his side have more of a cutting edge.

“St Johnstone had two touches in our box, we had total domination of the game, but the final third and the last decision or the last action wasn’t good enough,” said Robinson.

“We know that as a group and we know we need more numbers in those areas to score more goals, and that’s what we’ve worked on this week.

“We were getting into lots of areas, with 22 shots, it was 65 per cent possession or something, loads of corners, loads of entries into the box, but I’d say a little bit more quality is needed with that final decision and that final pass.

“That’s what we’ve worked on, trying to encourage more people to get into the box, and being brave in possession of the ball.”

St Mirren boss Craig McLeish, whose side are two points above the Dons, is also feeling the heat after a run of four consecutive defeats.

“I think Craig’s an excellent young coach,” said Robinson, whose move from St Mirren to Aberdeen in March paved the way for McLeish’s appointment.

“I think he’s done a really good job and recruited really well. You have spells in the season where things don’t go your way, and he’ll learn from that.

“He’s a very confident coach, very confident in his ability, so I expect him to come and do the same thing which has given him that relative success so far this season after a really good start. I don’t envisage loads of changes from St Mirren.”