ST MIRREN manager Stephen Robinson insists he is still targeting a European place, despite losing to Hibernian on Saturday.

Elie Youan and Will Fish put the home team 2-0 up at Easter Road and, although Saints pulled one back through Alex Greive, they were unable to find an equaliser.

The defeat means the Buddies are now three points behind the fifth-placed Hibees in the battle to secure European football next season.

Next up for Saints is a home match against fourth-placed Hearts this Saturday, with Robinson hoping his players can return to winning ways.

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Commenting on his team’s Euro prospects after the Easter Road defeat, he said: “They aren’t as good as they were before the game. You can pull that back very quickly, there are 12 points still to play for.

“We’ve got Hearts at home next and we’ve been very good at home.”

Robinson admits he was left disappointed by defensive errors against Hibs, who scored their first goal early in the match after a Saints throw-in went badly wrong.

“It was a disappointing start,” he said. “We gave ourselves a mountain to climb, two individual errors have cost us.

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“I’ll take my share of the responsibility. I want us to keep the ball from throw-ins, I don’t want us to just chuck it down the line, I want us to try and switch play. We got caught on it.

“The second is a set-play where we let a runner go. They are goals we don’t usually concede, which is frustrating.

“Our response to that was terrific. I asked them to go out and be brave and step forward and we should have taken something out of the game.”

Looking ahead to the match against Hearts, Robinson added: “We need to press more aggressively than we did in the first 20 minutes and hope and pray we don’t make individual errors.”