Stephen Robinson met with the media on Monday afternoon at Cormack Park ahead of our game against St Mirren.

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“You have to try and win every single game at Aberdeen Football Club, and we want to win and continue the run and make sure we finish the season positive. There’s been a lot of negativity this season. We’re starting to build a little bit momentum, and we want to continue and do that. And we want to finish seventh, there’s still a chance of that, so we will be going out to do that.”

Giving players chances

“If they’ve been good enough in training, there might be potential to have a chance. But obviously people have done very well. You have to be loyal to people that have done well. We have got a few missing, a few injuries, so people naturally must step up to that challenge.

“But I don’t believe in just giving people appearances for the sake of it. You have to earn the right. You know, this is a big football club. You don’t just go, well, we’ll give somebody a game. They have to earn it. They have to make sure that they help us win football matches. And if they do that, then I’ll give them opportunities. “Well, if any is, I’m not telling you (if anyone has disappointed). No, I’ve come in and everybody’s bought into what we’re doing. Of course, when players aren’t playing, they want to play. That’s what they get paid for.

“They all want to play football matches. You can only put eleven people on the pitch and you’re always going to leave people out a squad this big.

“People are going to be disappointed, but that’s football. And I always say to them, well, train better, play better, you play more.”

Ante Palaversa

“Ante’s done well when he’s come on. He’s not had as many regular minutes as he wanted, but I can’t fault his attitude in training. He’s been really good.

“As I said, it’s difficult when you’re not playing, you do get a little bit disillusioned, but he’s not been like that at all. Him and young KJ, they’ve trained well every day. But the midfielders have been very good as well.

“That’s what we want. We want competition. I’ll have a conversation with all the players in this week and next Monday before we leave and everyone will be quite clear on where I see their futures.

St Mirren

“The players that I know there, we left St Mirren with silverware only a few weeks previously, in a semi-final and in 10th place in the league, which is where St Mirren have notoriously been because of the resources they have.

“It showed it was a massive overachievement for three years. And those players have risen to that. I’ve no doubt they’ve got the quality. They’ve certainly got the personality to do that when everybody’s fit. They have struggled with injuries.

“I’m not there anymore. I don’t know how it is and I’m not sure. Obviously people have different ideas, coaches have got different ideas and everyone puts their own different stamp onto it, but in terms of the playing squad that I left behind, I’ve no doubt they have the desire and quality to stay up should it be in a playoff.”

Team News

“Dimi Mitov will miss out completely. He had surgery today on a groin injury. He’s been playing through the pain barrier for me, which is fantastic. Fans don’t see that; people don’t know that. He had surgery today to make sure he’s fit for pre-season. Stuart Armstrong, the same. He’ll have surgery on a breathing problem. Obviously, if he doesn’t have it done, he won’t be fit for pre-season.

“Alexander Jensen is a doubt for us. Dennis Geiger’s a doubt. He took a lot of knocks on Saturday. It’ll be a late assessment of the team.”

Steadying the ship

“That was the 1st task, steady the ship. There was a team that won one in 16 games, I believe. We had a lack of confidence. You have to put your own ego aside and I’m experienced enough now to know that you take over a club that’s going in the wrong direction, you put your ego to your side, you play to win football matches and you put a team out that can fulfil that due to the pressure that you’re playing under, which comes with playing for Aberdeen.

“We’ve done that. That’s the first thing. Now looking forward. It’s now building for the future. There’s a lot of things need done and changed for us to move in the right direction.”

What must improve

“More points, obviously. The recruitment. I think the recruitment has to be better. We have to, as I’ve said numerous times, complement each other. There’s no doubt there’s talent, but you have to make sure where they fit into the team, where they fit into the structure, where they fit into playing for me.

“That is easier said than done. It’s difficult to get players out when they’re under contracts. There’d be people that have surprised me since I come in, they want to buy into it. They want to go in the same direction. And inevitably at football clubs, people will fall by the wayside, people have different ideas than myself.

“And if that’s the case, we shake hands, they’ll move on, and we just rebuild the football club. Small things around the training ground can change things, can change the atmosphere, the togetherness, a real desire on the pitch.

“My goal is to create a team that the fans are proud of. I think you can see that in small moments in games, a reaction to giving the ball away, reaction to disappointment. It’s coming.

“Their togetherness, when they celebrate, they’re celebrating together. Small little things that people think are stupid, but it shows that there’s a harmony. It shows that there’s a togetherness within the core group. There’s certainly going in the right direction of travel.”

Focused on the task

“My job’s to win football matches for Aberdeen. Of course, longer term I’d love to see St Mirren survive and stay up. As I said, we left them in 10th position in a Semi-final and a cup win. I’m not in control of what happens after that. And it’s a case we must win the game.

“We want to keep this momentum going because you guys in six months’ time will use these last two games to tell me whether I’m winning games or losing games. You have to win every single football match, and it coincides that it’s against St Mirren. But after tonight, I’d love them to survive, of course. But after Tuesday night’s game, then we’ll worry about that.”

A busy summer coming up

“Things never move as fast as you want as a manager, unfortunately. There are processes to go through. This process has already started. It’s been started since I came in.

“I told people what I wanted and the type of player we want, and the type of profile for each position. That’s difficult, that’s really, really difficult to do, especially with our safety not confirmed. Nobody wanted to commit.

“I’m hoping things start to drop. You know, it would be nice before everybody goes away on holiday that we’ve got maybe three or four signings in. I can hope. As I say, there’s people, Lutz and his team are doing that in the background anyway. There’s been a lot of work put in already.”

Ending on a positive note

“We want to win these games. You win these games and you win the first two games next season, then everyone uses it as four unbeaten. I think it’s just important. People forget sometimes that footballs about winning football matches. You have to win as many football matches as you can. Every time I turn up to a game, I want to win. I expect to win and I expect the group of players to want to win.

“I’m not sure I’ll count for much next season. It helps finances a little bit. The boys that remain here will obviously have ended with that confidence. But I don’t think it really stands for a lot because we don’t want to be finishing seventh next season.”

Changing the mentality

“I think the mentality is the biggest change. I held my hands up after the game. I probably got a little bit deceived in training of players and made that decision based on bounce games because I had nothing else to go on.

“But over time you realise who can handle the pressure and play under these circumstances. And we believe we’ve got that better now, albeit we will have boys missing tomorrow night. The other boys have waited for their chance; they’ve conducted themselves really well. And the mentality within the group is night and day from when I walked in.

Marko Lazetic

“Marko’s gone back home for family reasons. Marko won’t be involved tomorrow, and we’ll have a look and see, but it’s unlikely he’ll be involved on Sunday."

Afeez Aremu

“Afeez has done really well. When I came in, he wasn’t fit. He hadn’t played a lot of game time and you can see him growing and getting better with every single game. He’s a lovely kid, great boy.

“You give him instructions, he does it. He’s a very good boy to work with and I believe we’ve not seen the best of him. He’ll grow, he’ll get better, settling into a new country as well, it takes time, but he’s settled in now and he’s now shown what a good and consistent player he is.”

Building the squad

“I’m not going to speak about individuals because that wouldn’t be fair to them or me. And you can’t speak about other players because they’re at other football clubs. So, of course, I want things done as quickly as possible.

“I’m sure Alan Burrows and Lutz will tell you that I’m not the most patient person in the world. We’re all working very hard to get people in and get a good squad together for next year.”

The test of St Mirren

“It’ll be a tough test. They’ve got players back. You know, Alex Gogic was suspended for two games, which they missed badly. They were unfortunate after the first 20 minutes.

“There was a lot of the game where they’d done a lot of good things. But unfortunately, results were going against them. We know they’re going to be motivated. They’re fighting for their lives and that’s our challenge tomorrow night, is the mentality because ultimately people may think we have nothing to play for now.

“In my mind, it’s completely different. Every time you put on an Aberdeen shirt, you want to win the game. We have to match the mentality. We didn’t do that at St Mirren in the first half especially and we must show that we’ve come on good strides and match that mentality.”