St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson talks up Diarmuid O’Carroll factor

O’Carroll, 36, worked with Robinson as a coach at Motherwell before following him to Morecambe in 2021 and then joined up again with the Northern Irishman at the Paisley club in February 2022.

In March last year, the Irishman was named as part of Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland backroom team while remaining as right-hand man to Robinson, who could not be happier as they plot the rest of the season ahead.

The Buddies went into the winter break with a 3-0 home defeat to cinch Premiership leaders Celtic but they still sit in a healthy fifth place, two points behind Kilmarnock.

Robinson said: “Diarmuid is excellent. He is the logical side of the management team.

“I am the more emotional of the two of us, he’s quite logical.

“Very, very good for me, he has been a breath of fresh air, working with him over the last four years, very intelligent boy who can put his hand to anything.

“Great enthusiasm, the boys love him and you don’t work at international level if you are not very good at what you do.

“So he has been very good for us and plays a huge part in what we do and everything we do at this football club is a collective.

“There is no one person saying this is the way we do things and I am very open to changing and moving with different ideas and different times and you have to do that because society changes.

“Young people are a lot more difficult to deal with now, they want instant success and so it is good to surround yourself with young coaches, young ideas and new ideas as well as retaining what has made you successful”.