St Mirren grabbed a vital win in the Ladbrokes Championship as they overcame Ayr United at Somerset Park.
Second half goals from John Sutton and Lewis Morgan sealed a 2-0 win for Jack Ross' side and boosted their hopes of climbing off the bottom of the league, with the gap over the Honest Men cut to five points.
All the pressure was on the Buddies going into this match and they started brightly in the opening exchanges. Indeed they could have been ahead within the first few minutes when Kyle Magennis had a shot blocked inside the Ayr box.
And similar happened less than 10 minutes later when Lewis Morgan and Harry Davis both saw efforts denied following a corner kick before Morgan scuffed wide.
Ayr started to grow into the match without putting any real pressure on Billy O'Brien in the Saints goal. But it was St Mirren who were continuing to create clear cut opportunities with John Sutton sending a shot over the bar after Cammy Smith's deflected effort fell into his path.
Stephen Mallan went the closest on the half hour mark with a 25 yard drive that had to be pushed over the bar by United keeper Greg Fleming.
Still Saints kept on the pressure winning three corners in quick succession before Smith sent a curling effort over.
Half Time: Ayr United 0-0 St Mirren
For all St Mirren's chances, they couldn't break the deadlock before the half time interval. But it wouldn't take long into the second period before the Buddies got their rewards.
Mallan sent a glorious through ball to John Sutton who charged forward one-on-one with the onrushing goalkeeper before taking the ball around him and finishing from a tight angle to spark joyous celebrations in the away end. It was no more than the Saints deserved and
There wasn't much between the sides in the next 10-15 minutes with Ayr plotting a way back into the match and the Buddies searching for a second goal to give themselves a cushion. That could have come for the away side on the hour mark when Smith went so close to making it 2-0. The midfielder turned on the edge of the box and got his shot away only to see it stopped by the fingertips of Fleming who knocked it on to the post before gathering.
Ayr made all their changes by 65 minutes and while they were trying to press forward they still weren't causing O'Brien any danger. But the goalie had to be alert with 15 minutes to go, doing well to come and bravely punch the ball before winning a foul.
It looked certain that it would be a nervy end to the game for Saints before a deadly counter attack wrapped up the points for the visitors. The ball was played in to Morgan, who had sped up the left hand side, by Magennis before the 20 year-old kept up his good run of form by lashing a shot from the edge of the box into the far corner beyond Fleming's grasp.
It was a goal that gave St Mirren that all important cushion heading into the final few moments with Ayr pressing forward in an attempt to salvage something from the match. Davis cleared one off the line with less than five minutes to go before O'Brien made a good save to deny Gary Harkins from a freekick.
In the end it was St Mirren's day as they grabbed their third league win of the season to narrow the gap at the bottom of the Ladbrokes Championship.
Full Time: Ayr United 0-2 St Mirren
St Mirren: O'Brien, Stelios, MacKenzie, Davis, Eckersley, Magennis, McGinn, Mallan (Fjelde 90), Smith (Todd 84) Morgan, Sutton
Subs Not Used: Langfield, Irvine, Baird, Loy, Storie
Ayr Utd: Fleming, Devlin, Boyle (Wardrope 45), Murphy (Forrest 65), Moore, Harkins, Cairney, El Alagui, Adams (Rose 33), Meggatt, Balatoni
Subs Not Used: Hart, Gilmour, McGuffie, McKenna
Referee: Craig Thomson
Assistant Referee: Brian Templeton
Assistant Referee: Thomas Shaw
Attendance: 2712 (1244 St Mirren fans)
