Manager Stephen Robinson praised his St Mirren players for sealing top-six football for a second successive season and urged them to now aim for Europe. (More Sports News)
The Paisley side lost 2-1 at home to Hearts, who forged into a two-goal lead thanks to Jorge Grant바카라s penalty and a Mikael Mandron own goal.
Toyosi Olusanya바카라s strike wasn바카라t enough to prevent St Mirren slipping to defeat but Hibernian바카라s failure to win against St Johnstone confirmed a top-half finish for the Buddies.
Robinson said: 바카라The top six is achieved over 33 games and you get your rewards. We are five points clear in fifth place and this group thoroughly deserves that.
바카라It바카라s the first time the club has achieved successive top-six finishes in 39 years. People바카라s expectations have risen massively and that바카라s down to the players."
바카라With the resources we have, we shouldn바카라t be in the top six. We are punching way above our weight in terms of the clubs we are competing with."
바카라Credit to the staff who work tirelessly to drag every bit of energy and quality out of the squad. And to the board who have backed us for the last two years and tried to push the club forward.
바카라Now our aim is can we get into Europe? It바카라s 37 years since we managed that but now we can breathe a bit, relax and play our football.바카라
Opposite number Steven Naismith was equally satisfied as Hearts ground out their 10th away victory of the season to strengthen their hold on third place.
He explained: 바카라I said that to the squad after the game. I think this is probably the stereotypical game Hearts have been questioned in over the years."
바카라Can you deal with the fight? Add to that St Mirren are going for the top six so when we take the lead, we know they were going to go gung-ho."
바카라They did and brought more attacking players on and we had to deal with it 바카라 and I think we did."
바카라We did it without three of our most consistent players this season and we did it in terrible conditions that both teams had to play in. So for me it바카라s a fantastic win.바카라
