Stephen Robinson met with the media at Cormack Park on Friday afternoon to preview our game against St Mirren.

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Returning to Paisley

“After three top six finishes, Europe and a cup win you'd expect a good reaction, but this is football so I can't imagine it will be that good, but I had a great time there, I've got a brilliant relationship with a lot of people there, but things move on in football and I'm going there as Aberdeen manager to make sure we get three points.

“It’s a huge game, you can't hide away from that, it's a game that we want to win, we want to make sure we don't lose and gain a little bit of momentum of course, because St Mirren are very close to us and we go with our intention to do that.

“We've had a couple of weeks since the Rangers game, there's been a lot of positivity around the place as well, people are starting to understand a little bit more of what you want, and it's a challenge, St Mirren will feel exactly the same, it's a big game but every game now between now and the end of the season is huge for the football club."

Reaction from the players

“The players have been brilliant. They've been excellent, the response has been very very good.

“When we tell home truths you don't just shout and rant and rave as people probably imagine what home truths are, it's a case of sitting people down, showing them what they're not doing, showing them what they're doing and doing well and emphasising the good and the bad, but there's a lot of things we felt that we could do a lot better against Rangers and you back that up with footage, you back that up on the training pitch and we've done that over the last ten days and they've responded really well.

“Of course, we need that (character), we need to show our quality as well, we need to show the attributes that we've got in the team, which is a lot of pace but of course you have to win that battle first of all and that's one of the things we need."

Ability to hurt teams

“Nobody knows St Mirren better than myself, and they will battle and they will scrap and they'll fight for every ball, they've got a lot of good boys there and we have to match that, and if we do that the quality will shine through, and we certainly can't do it the other way round, where we try and play and not expect that, but certainly that won't be a surprise to anybody.

“We've made everybody well aware how we can hurt them, we've made them aware of some earned threats to us as well of course but it goes without saying you have to win the fight before you can start to play your football.

“I have to look at the Aberdeen squad and I've got a better picture of the players, I've got a better picture of what works for the team, what works in terms of how can we get results between now and the end of the season, and as I say I know how to get results against them, they will probably feel the same about Aberdeen because everyone does their due diligence.

“We've got players that I feel can hurt them but we have to do the basics right, not concede the goals against Rangers which we were really disappointed with, they weren't brilliant goals, they weren't the team getting carved open, it was just doing the simple things better, which is massive in this game and if we do that I believe we've got the quality to hurt someone."

The addition of Elvis Bwomono

“Elvis is available (for selection), at this time of year it's really difficult, you're looking at boys that potentially haven't played since the summer, you're talking like 8-9 months out of football and some boys haven't played from November, which was Elvis' case in Iceland.

“Elvis is a boy I had with me who finished top 6 with St Mirren, got into Europe with St Mirren, so he was available because he's in between going back to Iceland again, so it worked for everybody and I believe that he comes in and gives us very good cover going forward with an area of the pitch we're very light in.

“Everyone else is fit, everyone's come back from international duty okay. That is probably the only downside of the last two weeks, we have had boys away and we haven't been able to work with them, but the ones that have been here have worked really well and everyone's fighting for a place and looking forward to the game.

A sold-out away end

“The fans are so important. It's massive, it's huge. I've alluded to this many times in my interviews, there's no job you can go to where anybody really responds to criticism, and what I've seen from the Aberdeen fans is a huge backing, a huge travelling support, any time I've been against them it's been massive, and if they can get behind the players and believe in them then we absolutely need them.

“One of the advantages of this football club is it's got a huge travelling support, it's got a huge home support and we have to use that to our advantage, we have to use that to get behind the players and the players also have to give the fans plenty to get behind and we hope to do that tomorrow.

Getting to know the players

“It was good to see the players in a competitive game against Dundee. It's been two weeks, it's hard to know every player and get every player's strength and weakness, so I feel that that game's helped us get some of the players that we maybe didn't know as much about and see their strengths and weaknesses as well so it was a good exercise.

“We don't have the numbers in that position, it was paramount that we got another boy that can play in the back three and can fill in in numerous positions, and signing people from abroad is very difficult, they all want two year contracts who may not be involved next year so it was very limited what we could do.

“Elvis has played 60 minutes against Dundee so certainly he comes in with an opportunity to be in the squad at least.

Sticking together

“It's going to be tough, both teams are fighting for their lives, we find ourselves in this position and you say we don't deserve to be there but we do because the season doesn't lie on a whole, and we now have to stick together and get ourselves out of this situation.

“There has been a lot of positivity, there's been a lot of good training sessions, there's been a lot of information given by the staff to the players, and that'll be the same with St Mirren, they've obviously had a change of manager as well.

“It'll be new ideas, new things that they'll try so it's who can carry that, who can deal with the situation, it's a pressure game of course but we've got experienced players here, we've got international footballers here who have been here and done it, won cups, played in big games for Aberdeen and I'm confident they'll stand up tomorrow.

“There are seven big games to go. Every game you've got to try and get the maximum points out of, if we can get three points tomorrow, brilliant, we certainly won't be relegated or in a relegation playoff place by losing tomorrow but certainly winning would help that, so as I say this club's been very up and down all the time.

“These are big games, we need to get enough points to make sure we're not in a relegation playoff or worse and then we rebuild for next season but first and foremost get as many points on the board as we can between now and the end of the season and certainly we've got players that can do that.