New Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson is getting next season's plans in place

New Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson feels continuity will help their attempts to meet his first target of avoiding relegation - but he has already begun plotting for his first full season.

Robinson was handed a contract until the end of next season after steadying the ship in two matches as caretaker boss.

Solid displays in victory over Kilmarnock and late defeat at Aberdeen helped persuade the Motherwell board to offer him an extended deal after interviewing four other candidates, including Simo Valakari. John Hughes, who emerged as the bookmakers' favourite on Tuesday, was not on the list.

Former Motherwell midfielder Valakari would have been a popular appointment but his current lack of knowledge of Scottish football counted against him as Robinson was handed the task of moving third-bottom Motherwell away from relegation danger.

It had been predicted Robinson would have got the job until the end of the season but the 42-year-old, who returned to the club as first-team coach last month following a six-month spell as Oldham boss, had potential options in the summer. And he wanted to plan for next season.

Robinson, who will be without four to six defenders against St Johnstone on Saturday, said: "The priority is to stay up and get our injury situation sorted out in the next two weeks.

"But we have already sat down with the chief scout, Martin Foyle, and the analyst (Ross Clarkson), and we have got lots of ideas and lots of players.

"It's very important that a club like Motherwell has got forward planning in place. If we get in a race for somebody for a player, we probably can't compete financially. So we have to do our due diligence early, and that's what we are doing now.

"I obviously know the English market very well and I'm also conscious that we retain a Scottish identity, which some teams maybe haven't in the past.

"We have our finger on the button, we know what we're looking at. I know that the side needs pace, we have to add an injection of strength and pace in the side and that will be something we are very much looking to do once we stay up."

Robinson was previously assistant to Ian Baraclough and Mark McGhee - as well as Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill.

"I suppose it gives me a little bit of an advantage," said Robinson. "At Oldham you don't know the players, you don't know the staff, you don't know the background of what's been going on. It gives me a little bit of a head-start to it already.

"I know the vast majority of the players really well and I know what's needed.

"I took a lot of the training with both previous managers, they both let me take a lot of the stuff. I'm used to that.

"I dealt with plenty of issues at Oldham and you soon learn very quickly on the job. I don't see a problem with that.

"Not loads will change from what I have done in the last two weeks. We tried to put a structure in place where we are hard to beat and stop conceding goals, and we continue to do that to make sure we stay in this division."

Robinson revealed he sought and received McGhee's blessing before taking on the post.

"I originally came here for three months," he added. "I probably wouldn't have come back as anyone else's assistant manager. I had done that and I wanted to manage.

"I had a couple of other tentative opportunities in the summer that I had looked at and were quite exciting. But when you are asked to manage in the SPL, it's a super opportunity at a club like Motherwell, it was very difficult to turn down."

The suspended Ben Heneghan joins long-term absentees Richard Tait, Stephen McManus and Kieran Kennedy on the sidelines on Saturday while Zak Jules and Steven Hammell are injury doubts, along with striker Scott McDonald.

Robinson said: "Football is always a challenge. I can assure you, nothing I incur here I can't deal with after what I dealt with previously."

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