Stephen Robinson has urged his St Mirren players to seize a “fairytale” opportunity to progress in the Europa Conference League, which would be “life-changing” for them, the club and their fans.
Paisley’s side head to Norway to face Brann on Thursday, with the teams tied 1-1 after the first leg of the third qualifying round.
Whoever wins will face Corvinul Hunedoara, from the Romanian second division, or Astana, with the Kazakhstan team winning 2-1 in the first leg, in the play-off stage.
“We are one game away from progressing to the next stage and we have a great chance of progressing, which could change the lives of the football club and the players,” said Robinson.
The St Mirren manager realizes how progress would be received in his hometown.
“You saw that in Paisley, after the draw, it was going crazy, everyone was full of joy,” he said. “We’ve been waiting a long, long time for this.
“I would say, ultimately, we have to continue to do more regular tours of Europe, rather than once every 40 years.
“Everyone would be delighted, just to give the fans another trip, another trip, they will be here again in large numbers in Norway and it is very expensive to travel to these countries, so that is the motivation for the players.”
St Mirren, who finished fifth in the Scottish Premiership last season, followed up a 3-0 win over Hibernian on matchday one with a 3-1 defeat away to Aberdeen on Sunday.
Robinson realizes that his team “has to go another 10 percent to beat this team”, who were runners-up in Norway last season and currently sit in third place.
“We believe we are much better than we have shown,” he said. “We have to face a very good Brann team. And that’s the motivation, to show people how good you are.
“We have to play better. Outside of possession, we did very well. We were very well trained, very organized.
“But we didn’t play. It was without doubt one of our worst performances on the ball for a few months. It improved immensely against Aberdeen.”
Robinson realizes that defeating Brann would be seen as a huge surprise.
“When you look at the size of the football club and the resources it has, this goes far beyond anything we can imagine,” he added.
“That’s why competing with them and coming away with a result without playing anywhere near our best, then it’s a fantastic show of strength, a fantastic show of commitment to keep going until the 96th minute.”
