St Mirren: Stephen Robinson signs new deal until 2027

Manager Stephen Robinson says “it was a very easy decision” to sign a new contract that ties him to St Mirren until the summer of 2027.

The Northern Irishman left Morecambe to take charge in Paisley in February 2022 and has led the Buddies to back-to-back top-six finishes in his two full seasons.

The 49-year-old has steered St Mirren to their highest league positions in almost 40 years and in doing so qualified for Europe for the first time since 1987.

However they have lost three Scottish Premiership games in a row and sit eighth in the table, just three points off the bottom.

The former Oldham, Motherwell and Morecambe manager said the new deal had been in the pipeline for a while but also that he wanted to be certain the club was viewing the future the same way he did.

“I’ve spoken to the club for numerous weeks, probably months. It was always going to happen,” he said.

“I had to make sure that the football club was going to go in the direction I wanted it to and Jim [Gillespie, vice-chairman] has been a driver of that.

“So I’m delighted to get it signed. There’s a lot more work to do – we’ve had a lot of relative success and achieved a lot of good things in the period the staff and myself have been here.

“I’m very happy here and felt it was the right time to commit. We’ve had a few sticky results over the last few weeks, but we’ve got a lot of belief in the club and I’m happy to try and push the place forward.

“It’s important for a club of our size to make forward-thinking decisions and forward planning and I’m very appreciative of the board’s support.”

Chairman John Needham said Robinson has been a key role in St Mirren “making real strides with our strategy to build the club’s strength and stability”.

“Extending his contract at this time reflects our ambition to maintain the levels of success we’ve enjoyed on the park over recent seasons,” he added.