St Mirren continued their impressive league performance this afternoon, with a 2-0 victory over Queen of the South at the Paisley 2021 Stadium.
The Saints went into today's match knowing they could increase the gap between themselves and second place with a win, due to Dundee Utd's game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle being postponed earlier in the day.
St Mirren started off very lively, when two minutes into the game Kyle Magennis managed to find space at the edge of the box and struck at goal, only to be denied by Queens goalkeeper Alan Martin, who was equal to it and parried away.
The deadlock was broken only two minutes later though, when Liam Smith found himself in similar space to what Magennis had moments earlier, but this time the on-loan full back made the Queens defence pay, by lashing the ball past Alan Martin into the top right hand corner, scoring his first ever goal for the club.
The Doonhamers did work their way back into the game a bit, after a couple of good attempts from Stephen Dobbie and Ross Fergusson. After a series of corners from the away side they did manage to get the ball over the line eventually, after a rebounded Dobbie strike was touched in. But the assistant referee had flagged for offside, as Jack Ross' men held on to their lead.
The Buddies responded well and started to pile on the pressure as they had a succession of corners. One short corner almost resulted in a goal from Lewis Morgan, but was tipped over from Alan Martin.
The resulting corner was cleared and picked up by Adam Eckersley who attempted a long range effort on goal, but was handled in the box by Queens captain John Rankin. Referee Steven Kirkland had no option but to point to the spot and award St Mirren a penalty.
Strangely, it was central defender Harry Davis who stepped up to the plate, and as cool as you like the Englishman tucked home from 12 yards; sending Martin the wrong way, Davis doubled Saints' lead on the 33 minute mark.
Saints could have been even further ahead before half time: Jack Baird winning a header from a corner that went just wide, and Gavin Reilly managed to get a toe onto a low cross from Liam Smith, which trickled agonisingly past the post.
Half Time: St Mirren 2-0 Queen of the South
The second half didn't have quite the same action as the first, with most of Saints' attacks reduced to long range efforts. Attempts from Davis, Morgan, Smith and Mullen where not enough to make life difficult for sub goalkeeper Jack Leighfield.
The last five minutes St Mirren did need to show their resolve though, as Gary Naysmith's side strived to find way back into the game. There was a couple of late attempts from Rankin and Dobbie, but nothing that worried Saints keeper Samson.
The game finished 2-0 to St Mirren, who now hold a 14 point gap over second place Dundee Utd.
Full Time: St Mirren 2-0 Queen of the South
St Mirren: Samson, L.Smith, Baird, Davis, Eckersley, McGinn, Magennis, Flynn (Hill 88), C.Smith (McShane 77), Morgan, Reilly (Mullen 65)
Subs Not Used: Stewart, Stelios, MacKenzie, Sutton
Queen of the South: Martin (Leighfield 59), Rooney, Fordyce, Brownlie, Cameron, Rankin, Dobbie, Thomson, Fergusson (Todorov 70), Mercer (Thomas 45), Dykes
Subs Not Used: Murray, Bell, Harvey
Referee: Steven Kirkland
Assistant Referee: Willie Conquer
Assistant Referee: Colin McAlpine
Attendance: 4585
Gallery pictures by John Millar © - Millar Pictures
