Delighted Stephen Robinson watched his side burst back on the top six door and then urged his St Mirren stars to go and grab the glory.
Connor Ronan’s stoppage time winner sunk Dundee at Dens Park to give him his first win as Buddies boss.
The Paisley side are still ninth but are level on points with sixth-placed Ross County - going into the final three games before the split.
Robinson claimed: “I wish there wasn’t a split because we would give ourselves a chance going all the way through.
“ St Mirren haven’t been in the top six for a long time but now we have given ourselves a chance. We have given ourselves hope of being in there.
“We have Motherwell, Dundee United and Rangers before the split. It is an opportunity and now it is up to us to take it.”
Robinson was headhunted from Morecambe after Jim Goodwin quit for Aberdeen. It was his first victory at the fourth time of asking.
He claimed: “Football is a funny game. I was a good manager and I was a rubbish manager five days later.
“I am an alright manager now and I could be anything after Saturday.
“That is what football is, people will go home buzzing with our winner and now we have a chance of progressing on Saturday.
“I have been in it a long time now. I was getting stick being third with Motherwell.
“You can never make everybody happy. You want to win matches and in your first game but we didn’t through circumstances with 10 men and Celtic Park.
“It is nice to get the win more for the players than myself, I can deal with it.”
Now his side have the chance to make it a dream few days with a Scottish Cup quarter final win at Hearts on Sunday.
He added: “The biggest pleasing thing for me was not just the style we played but the patience we had, we didn’t just try to launch it up the pitch.
“The league is very tight, it’s small and fine margins.
“It went our way tonight and deservedly so, the more you play in the opposition's box the better chance you have of getting it.
“We can go and enjoy the cup game now.”
