Stephen Robinson pleased with St Mirren win in testing conditions at Cowdenbeath

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson was happy enough to see his side overcome difficult circumstances at Cowdenbeath and get their Premier Sports Cup campaign up and running.

A first-half double from Jonah Ayunga earned the Buddies a 2-0 win at Central Park against a side managed by Maurice Ross, who was one of the members of Robinson’s coaching staff at Motherwell.

Robinson said in a club video: “The pitch was very, very poor. There was one ball in the whole stadium, so the whole thing slows the game down.

“I thought first half we were very good, we played the conditions and put the ball in behind them, created chances and scored two.

“Second half, I have to give credit to Maurice Ross and his team, very well organised. It was in a 40×40 box, 3-5-2, ‘break us down’, and we haven’t quite got Lionel Messi to go past four or five people.

“So we controlled the game in the second half without creating a lot of chances. Alex (Greive) has hit the crossbar but we got the job done and there’s better decision-making to be had, we forced it at times.”