Stephen Robinson spoke to the media at Cormack Park on Thursday afternoon ahead of our game against Livingston.

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Looking to Livi

“It is a tough game. Any game down at Livingston is always tough on the surface. And they are team with freedom. “They got a very good result last week against St Mirren. They've got nothing to lose. When you play a team like that they are dangerous.

"They’ve got a threat going forward, some real handfuls in the forward areas. They’ve got some big strong boys at the back, a huge threat from set plays. A battle that we expect, that there's going to be no surprises. We're going to have to scrap and battle to win the game as we did last week, and we've got a real incentive to.

A good few weeks but still work to do

“I think somebody said it’s the first two wins in a row since November 2024, which is an incredible stat if it's true, and I usually get stats wrong, so it might not be true. Of course, winning breed's confidence. We defended really well. “We've done the simple things well. We had a little bit of luck along the way. There was no denying that, as you need, which we haven't had this season at all. We have to be better on the ball going forward, but there's a lot of pressure and players are playing under a lot of pressure. Hopefully that is eased a little bit, but we are still certainly not 100% safe. “Whether we receive it or not (safety), we have still got work to do. We’re trying to build going forward, but until we're mathematically safe, nobody will be dropping any kind of standards here at the Football Club. It is a situation we didn't want to be in, but we have found ourselves in. The last two results have, have helped us a along the way. “My remit was to make sure we're not in a relegation play-off. But we’ve still got a way to go to confirm that we're not. So until we do that, we won't be resting our laurels.

Character amongst the squad

“I think before I come in, people questioned the character of the team. It was questioned, week in, week out. What they've shown is under an intense amount of pressure is they can rise to that. And they put their bodies on the line, they're coming out on top winning 50-50 balls or winning second balls, you need to do that in Scottish football before you can earn the right to play, and we know we didn't play to the level we wanted to play last week, but you could feel the nervous energy. “But what we've done has been able to handle that. We've been able to grind results out at times and we've ground out the two results in different ways.

The defence

“When I come in, I didn't have a lot of choices, only three defenders fit. We went with Gav, we've done a lot of work with them on the coaching pitch and they've embraced that, which is credit to them. “And I think you can see the three of them growing game by game. Gavin Molloy was excellent, been excellent since I came into the football club. And now that we've got Mats back as well, it gives us another little bit of competition. So, everybody has to stay in that kind of form to stay in the team. I am really pleased with them. “It’s never too early to explore the possibility (Liam Morrison returning in the summer). Of course, Lutz and the recruitment guys will be exploring that already. “When I first came up, there was a lot of people doubting Liam. “It takes a while to adjust to Scottish football and people that come up from England or abroad, it's a hard league a, really hard league and it does take time to get up to speed. And I think that's been the case with Liam. He had a sending off, an injury, and he's now showing what a good player he is and if we could do something, it'll be certainly something that Lutz and the recruitment staff will explore.

Team News

“Emma we will assess tomorrow. He's obviously gone through his protocols. We'll see where he is, to see if he’s had no response to training this week. He joined in with training today. “Jack's 100% fine after his knock, he done the protocols and trained fully today. “Nicky Devlin's back in training, will be full training next week. And, Mats has come through unscathed, so he is available for selection as well.

Fast starts

“Brentford do it, they scored three goals, I think, in three minutes in games early on in the season. And that is something I've taken, play in their half early on, make the opposition defend and try and get a foothold in the game. We've done that and we've done really well for 20 minutes after that. “And then, as I say, the nervousness crept in and everyone was frightened to make a mistake, but we managed to grind a result out and we need to see intensity from the start of the game because Livingston have got nothing to loose, absolutely nothing.

Friday night in West Lothian

“They've got some good footballers in the team. They've got a big strong side and a good manager. So certainly, we'll have to be exact same again right from the kick-off. “That’s credit to the Aberdeen fans. Any game I've gone to watch that Aberdeen are playing the away sections filled, and it's not a short journey anywhere from here. “It's absolutely credit to them. Since I’ve come in, the fans have been fantastic. They've got behind the players. And when people are together, as I keep repeating, you can achieve good things.

Reflections from last weekend

“We just need to keep that going for another 60 odd minutes, but we didn't manage that. We have got some very good technical players in the team. Pressure does strange things to people. And as soon as you don't take your second goal, or you finish the team off, there is pressure, and Killie had nothing to lose again. “They were 2nd bottom; they come out and play with freedom. I get that reputation because if I get an opportunity to put the ball into the box from a dead ball, which Brentford do, which Brighton do, which Bournemouth do, that’s where it comes from. In general, we want to have ownership of the game. We want to have more possession than the opposition. And we want to build that, and we want to be better at that as we go and we look forward to that next season as well. “I watched their St Mirren game back; St Mirren had a lot of chances in the first half and didn't take them. So when you don't take them, as we didn't do in the game last week, people grow in confidence and come back into the game, and they've got threats in the team. “Marvin's got the team together. He got a way of playing now, and they're not losing games by a lot. People say, oh, they've only won one game for a long time. But you're talking 1-0s or draws. It’s a tough task; one we want to step up to. The crowd that are there deserve a performance and a result.

Possibility of changing the team

“I have to weigh up all those possibilities. And also, the other fact is the three centre halves have kept two clean sheets in a row. “Sometimes you need to change, sometimes you don't. There's been so much change at this football club. Lots of different managers with different ideas, since I come in, I've chopped and changed the team until I got a familiarity with the players. He's certainly available and he's certainly putting pressure on the other players, whether I start him on Friday or not that remains to be seen. “Potentially both. My shape is based on what we can recruit. I think systems are massively overrated. If you screenshot any system a back five, and you've got your wing backs high, it becomes a back four. People exaggerate, you've got your principles on how you play, you can do that within any system. “But certainly, there's players I haven't given opportunities to, due to the system that they haven't quite fitted into, the wide players. It would be very good to see those players on the pitch before I make decisions, but first and foremost, we get to that level of safety and then I can do that. “I've spoken to Topi, I spoke to Milanovic. Topi can fit into the system because he comes on as a central striker and gives us that electric pace that Toyosi gives us as well. “It’s a little bit different for Mila, but he's looked very good in training. I want to see him, but they understand, the boys knew the situation that I came into, and we got ourselves into, that we needed to get out of. I've got no ego, so you have to play a certain way to get results. That was my remit and then when we get that, then I'll start changing things for next season."