It's madness to talk about sacking him: 7th in the table, 5 points off automatic promotion, halfway through the season,1st defeat in 8 games, 3 league defeats all season. I'm amazed that this thread even exists. If it was 8 games without a win and we were just above the relegation zone, fair enough! But it would be a tremendously retrograde step when the manager is working on a long term project in difficult circumstances at a basket case of a club, and clearly making consistent progress year-on-year whilst improving players and the squad overall, as well as bringing in a lot of money in transfers to pay the bills.
There's no doubt if you look at the clubs last 3-4 seasons, he's stopped the rot (and what a rot it was!) and reversed it. I'm not quite sure why people think we suddenly have a God-given right to be running away with the division? Other than that we have a better team than we have for years and are playing good football-and who is that largely down to? The manager! He's a victim of creating higher expectations by being successful, if anything.
There's also no doubt that vastly more players have improved than gone backwards under his stewardship, most notably Mason, Hyam, Biamou, Kelly, McCallum, Shipley and Westbrooke (not to mention those we have sold for good money).
His two "marquee" signings this season, and rare experienced players in the squad, Godden and Allen, have missed a lot of games. Neither are fully match fit yet, both are class acts and both will make a difference when firing on all cylinders.
Finally, yes you can argue that St. Andrews hasn't affected us as "home" form has been so good, but I would reverse that thinking: it could, very very easily, have been a massive issue, but the manager takes huge credit for the superb home form: again, a victim of his own success rather than being credit for achievement, it's being used as a stick to beat him!
Yes he has his faults (he wouldn't be here otherwise!), most notably being too defensive and stubborn at times, but I'll take that over the myriad disasters that came with our previous dozen or more managers. He's the first one who has a coherent plan and is really any cop since Eric Black.
Expectations? Challenge for playoffs/promotion over the next two seasons. I wouldn't think about sacking him as long as we finish at least in the top half and progress can be seen to be being made, which I think it has been almost constantly throughout Robin's time in charge. If we don't go up this year, I am sure that the team will be stronger and go closer the following season, and indeed the following season after that if we don't make it up then (off the pitch financial meltdowns aside...).