Stephen Robinson turned 50 this week. Happy (belated) birthday! According to my calculations that makes his star sign Sagittarius.
I did a quick search on the internet – and apparently Sagittarians are passionate, curious, intense and adaptable.
If you watch Robinson on the sidelines on any given Saturday afternoon there’s definitely passion and intensity in spades.
As for adaptability, well, the Buddies boss has had a lot to cope with this season. The club ‘parting company’ with three new first-team players early in the season because of separate legal issues isn’t the sort of thing you can prepare for.
Then there’s the European hangover. It’s hard to deny the adventures in Iceland and Norway had an impact on the early-season form and I won’t mention one or two (or three or four) refereeing decisions that even non-Sagittarians might consider curious.
And yet St Mirren are just a point and a few goals outside the top six. So I guess that’s proof of adapting to whatever slings and arrows outrageous fortune can fire at a football manager.
If you’re a pessimist, or a Capricorn maybe, you could say the Buddies are six points and a few goals off the bottom. True.
After a four-game unbeaten streak they’ve lost two on the spin without scoring. To make sure that losing streak isn’t extended further, Robinson might tweak St Mirren’s style a bit, maybe he’ll just try to get his team to be better at being St Mirren.
Evidence from earlier in the season indicates the latter is more likely. I’ll cite the manner in which they bounced back from the 4-0 defeat by Hearts to run Rangers close at Ibrox then go four games unbeaten as evidence.
The Buddies will have to adapt to playing without Alex Gogic this weekend against St Johnstone after his red card in defeat by Motherwell.
The Cyrpus international has been the backbone of the defence in the past couple of seasons and could be sorely missed.
St Mirren have four matches before the transfer window opens in the new year – and they all look tough. Away trips to Perth and Dingwall this side of Christmas Day, then home games against Rangers and Dundee.
After that we might get an idea how realistic another top-six finish is – or how close a fight for Premiership survival might be.
Reinforcements will be on the way in January, the manager has already drawn up a longlist of potential recruits. He wants more pace and energy in the team to shake things up a bit.
Look, I know astrology is a load of unscientific rubbish, but that’s typical Sagittarian behaviour.
