Buddies on a real roll now
Jack Ross insists the momentum is now with Saints after John Sutton and Lewis Morgan goals closed the gap on secondbottom Ayr to five points.
The Buddies blew Ayr away with a powerful display and boss Ross reckons his players deserved their win before a noisy travelling band of 1200 fans.
He said: “We spoke about the enormity of the game and knew if we didn’t win it would leave us in a very difficult position.
“We’re still in a difficult position but we now have momentum. We’ve only three defeats in 13 but more importantly three wins in a row.
“We could have won after being battered for 90 minutes and I wouldn’t have cared but I thought we were good as well which is a bonus.”
Saints dominated a onesided first half without scoring, the closest being a 25-yard Stevie Mallan rocket superbly tipped over by Greg Fleming.
The overdue breakthrough came three minutes after the break.
Sutton raced on to Mallan’s pass and kept his cool to slide home from an acute angle.
Cammy Smith hit the post then Kyle Magennis had an effort pushed away by Fleming.
Ayr had another letoff when Paul Cairney hooked the ball off the line as the Buddies really upped the pressure.
Ayr at last rallied and were pushing strongly when they were hit on then counter attack with seven minutes to go.
A sweeping move ended with Morgan curving a shot into the bottom corner.
Ayr boss Ian McCall said: “We were awful and St Mirren deserved to win. The first goal was always going to be key and was avoidable after we gave the ball away.”