Champions elect go further ahead at top
St Mirren boss Jack Ross was all smiles as he left the field at Palmerston with a 3-1 win tucked behind him, stating: “It’s been a good day for us and we’ve stretched our lead at the top.”
And he added: “I said beforehand that if we keep on winning games we can’t be stopped and we have the bonus of the other teams losing points.”
But the Buddies’ gaffer admitted that it was a difficult match with a really strong bitter wind.
“They were difficult conditions to play any pattern and we had to rely on individual quality of the team and we got the better of things in the second half,” he revealed.
The St Mirren players were backed by a strong following of travelling fans who were in good voice despite the bitter icy wind and confident their 10-point lead at the top of the Championship table would be extended at the expense of Queens having beaten them three times already this season.
And they felt their hopes had been given a boost when there was disappointment for the Doonhamers who were without top scorer Stephen Dobbie, who was ruled out through injury.
However, there was really little to shout about in the opening stages with both teams taking time to settle in the Arctic blast and neither keeper really troubled.
In fact it was 15 minutes before the first effort on goal when Kyle Magennis got to the end of a cross from his right and the ball flashed just outside the post.
But this seemed to act as a spur to Saints and within seconds Cameron Smith had an effort which keeper Jack Leighton fumbled and was lucky to see go outside the woodwork .
Then in 18 minutes Saints did make the breakthrough when Lewis Morgan left four defenders in his trail and slipped the ball through for Danny Mullen who fired it home from 15 yards.
But the Dumfries men hit back three minutes later when Jordan Marshall
made a run up the left, did a one-two with Dom Thomas and then smashed the ball home with a angular driver.
Queens almost edged their way ahead when John Rankin strolled from midfield without being challenged to get in a shot which just went wide.
The Palmerston side were playing controlled football which was keeping Saints’ defenders busy and Thomas had one shot just before the break which Samson was happy to pull down.