The St Mirren stadium DJ is either a part-time clairvoyant down the Piazza Shopping Centre during the week or he is blessed with a tremendous sense of humour.

In the darkest depths of a crippling November winter that had already killed off the first attempt to play this William Hill Scottish Cup tie with Spartans on Saturday, the prospect of getting the odd goal, let alone a win, against the semi-pro Lowland League side was far from a sure thing on a chilly night in Paisley.

Not a league win since April, anchored to the foot of the Ladbrokes Championship table and with just three strikes at home on league duty this season, the pre-match theme tune of ACDC’s Shoot To Thrill seemed as ambitious as it did ridiculous.

Given the 5-1 rousing victory that was subsequently earned by his team to take them into the fourth round to face Dundee, and the manner in which each effort flew into Blair Carswell’s net, it would perhaps make sense to ask the man with his finger on the play button to give a premonition for tonight’s lottery draw.

The subdued 1147 here were treated to a clutch of goals of the highest quality from Lawrence Shankland, Stephen Mallan and Kyle McAllister to put St Mirren 3-0 up at half-time. John Sutton nodded home 63 minutes with Shankland sprinting through to grab his second with a cute finish with 21 minutes to go before Jack Beesley gave the 75 travelling fans something to cheer for. Sort of.

“The quality of the goals, particularly in the first half, was very very good,” Said Jack Ross, the St Mirren manager whose club held a minute’s applause midway through the second half as a tribute to the air crash disaster that has devastated Brazilian club Chapecoense.

“There’s a lot of things that remind you that football is the be all and end all, but it also isn’t if that m makes sense. With the way things have been at this club you can be under a dark cloud but it’s important we always look beyond that.”

Spartan beat Huntly 2-0 a month ago to book their place in the third round, but the team managed for the night by assistant Gary Smith – manager Dougie Samuel is on holiday in New York - could not repeat the heroics that put Morton out of the Scottish Cup last season. In all honesty, this was the confidence boost St Mirren so dearly needed to try and kick-start their season.

The first shot in the arm came on 15 minutes. A floated cross-field pass from Kyle Magennis found Shankland on the edge of the area for him to chest down and curl a superb shot into the far corner.

Four minutes later and it was two. Jason Naismith’s attempted cross was cleared only as far as Mallan. The 20-year-old doesn’t score a bad goal and he kept that going here by smashing an effort from 25-yards through a ruck of bodies and under Carswell.

St Mirren were dominant as Spartans struggled to get out of their own half. When they did, it made little difference as home favourite McAllister proved on 32 minutes by marking his first senior goal with an absolute worldy.

Collecting the ball a good 80 yards from goal, the 17-year-old drifted beyond half the Spartans team, dancing by challenge after challenge, making his way to the edge of area before thumping a stonking shot in off the underside of the bar.

The interval didn’t interrupt St Mirren’s flow as Sutton got in on the act by heading in a rebound, while Shankland sprinted through the middle of the Spartans defence to dink over the outrushing Carswell to make it five.

It wouldn’t be St Mirren though without the odd lapse, and it came on 74 minutes. Striker Jamie Dishington saw his shot from six yards saved by Scott Gallagher, but substitute Beesley was on hand to bend in a consolation.

“We thought we had a chance,” said Spartans assistant Smith. “We were hoping St Mirren would have an off day and we would have 14 players on top of their game. It didn’t turn out that way.”

ST MIRREN: S Gallagher; Naismith, Gordon, McKenzie, Irvine; McAllister, Magennis, Mallan, Morgan; Shankland, Sutton (Orsi 81)

UNUSED SUBS: Langfield, Clarkson, C Gallagher, McLear

SCORERS: Shankland 15, 68, Mallan 20, McAllister 32, Sutton 63

BOOKINGS:

SPARTANS: Carswell; Thomson, Townsley, Malone, Stevenson; Herd, Tolmie (Salutregi 74), Brown, Mair (Maxwell 45); Hay (Beesley 64), Dishington

Unused subs: Gilpin, Watson, Ward, Comrie

Scorers: Beasley 73

BOOKINGS

Attendance: 1147

Referee: Kevin Graham