St Mirren are just one point away from guaranteeing their top flight status once again after securing a hugely significant win over St Johnstone.
Stephen Robinson’s men arrived at McDiarmid Park on Saturday knowing a win in the latest battle of the Saints would be massive for their Scottish Premiership season.
And it came through the returning Greg Kiltie’s clinical second half goal, capping off a wonderful passage of play as he slotted home the winner.
The Buddies now sit eight points ahead of the relegation play-off position, which remains occupied by Callum Davidson’s Perthshire outfit, with just three league matches remaining.
Paisley boss Robinson made three changes from last week’s home defeat to Hibs. Out went Ethan Erhahon, Alan Power and Eamonn Brophy, with the trio replaced by Alex Gogic, Kiltie and Alex Greive.
Meanwhile, there was one change made by the hosts from last Saturday’s draw at Dundee, as Tom Sang started in place of Dan Cleary.
The Buddies were definitely the fastest of the two teams out of the blocks.
With the game barely 60 seconds old, Greive forced a great save from home keeper Zander Clark with Curtis Main unable to turn the rebound.
A flurry of corners and long throws followed but nothing came of the early pressure, as Greive and Main led the team press from the front.
Davidson’s side then had their first opportunity after a little more than 20 minutes as striker Callum Hendry dragged the ball well wide of the upright, following full back Callum Booth‘s blocked shot from the edge of the penalty area.
This was the closest the home side came to getting on the scoresheet all afternoon.
Gogic, who returned to the starting line-up after being ineligible against his parent club Hibs last week, put in a typically battling performance in the middle of the park.
He almost bagged his second goal of the campaign for St Mirren, smashing his rebound from his own poorly hit free kick just wide for the visitors.
Former Motherwell gaffer Robinson, who was on the hunt for only his second victory in charge of the Paisley side, was definitely the happier of the two bosses as the sides went back into the dressing rooms at half time despite the scoreline remaining level at the break.
The second half certainly was not brought to life as quickly as the first. In fact, the opening was quite scrappy as the importance of the clash appeared to take its toll on both sets of players.
What was not scrappy in the slightest though was the significant opening goal for the Buddies after 52 minutes.
It came courtesy of playmaker Kiltie who netted his fifth goal of the campaign. The former Kilmarnock midfielder swept the ball calmly beyond Clark from Grieve’s excellent cut back after a lovely team move sparked by Gogic.
Former St Mirren man Cammy MacPherson was part of a double sub as a reaction to the deadlock being broken as he replaced Ali Crawford.
Defender Sang was also sacrificed for on-loan Rangers and Scotland under-21 international winger Glenn Middleton.
Those changes did not have the desired effect for Davidson and he made another two with a quarter of an hour to go. This time strikers Theo Bair and Stevie May came on for former Dundee United and Celtic forward Nadir Çiftçi and Murray Davidson.
Main had a header wide and Connor Ronan, who played a bit deeper alongside Gogic, also had a free kick parried away.
The impressive Main’s low shot on target late on in proceedings was easily gathered by Clark.
Experienced midfielder Ryan Flynn came on for goal hero Kiltie with eight minutes to go, while Brophy replaced Grieve in stoppage time as St Mirren looked to hang on to their lead.
There were four minutes of added time at the end of the game and the hosts rallied for one final push.
They managed to eventually earn a corner, for which they even threw forward keeper Clark. But nothing came of that set piece and ref Andrew Dallas called for time, sparking huge celebrations among the relieved away support.
Last year’s double Cup winners could have cut the gap between the teams to just two points, but they did not have a single shot on target throughout the whole 90 minutes and will almost certainly be involved in the play-offs at the end of the season.
But St Mirren, backed by a delighted and very noisy away support who certainly knew the significance of the result, were relieved to get a first win since March at a pivotal moment in the campaign.
They host Dundee at the SMISA Stadium next Saturday afternoon, looking to rubber stamp their place in the division next season with at least a point.
Robinson will also be hopeful this victory can spark his team into life and they may yet be able to finish seventh for the second successive season.
