IT is often said it is the hope that kills you but St Mirren will take their chances with that right now. Jack Ross’ side remain rooted to the foot of the Championship but this hard-fought but deserved victory over Ayr United, the team closest to them in the table, at least keeps alive the prospect of an unlikely escape act. Defeat here and it would surely have been curtains.

This was St Mirren’s first league win since December 10 and had the effect of drawing them to within five points of their vanquished opponents and with a game in hand to boot. Ayr, toothless throughout and without a solitary chance of note until they were already two goals down, remain in the relegation play-off spot but may also now find themselves looking over their shoulder. Ian McCall’s side have not won a league game since October and the home fans were not slow to voice their grumbling disapproval throughout another frustrating 90 minutes. Their manager was of a similar mind.

“St Mirren deserved to win as we were awful”, said a clearly vexed McCall. “From our point of view the first goal was key and it was completely avoidable. It was our set-play and we give the ball away. We were very poor today and let our supporters down who were terrific. There was a great atmosphere in the ground and St Mirren helped with that. But that’s no consolation. We just weren’t good enough.”

St Mirren, their spirits roused after reaching the Irn-Bru Cup final the previous weekend, were the dominant side throughout, even if they rarely turned that supremacy into chances throughout a stodgy contest.

When opportunities did arise, however, they were sufficiently alert to convert two of them. The first came just three minutes after half-time. Stevie Mallan bisected the backtracking Ayr defence with a perfectly-weighted ball allowing John Sutton to sidestep the outrushing Greg Fleming before scoring from a tight angle.

The game remained in the balance as long as there was only one goal in it but St Mirren closed the door on their opponents with a second strike seven minutes from time. It was a classic counter attack, Mallan and Kyle Magennis combining to send Lewis Morgan away and his shot across the goalkeeper was arrow-straight into the far corner. Ayr, belatedly, showed a bit of fighting spirit, creating a number of half-chances, but it was too little too late. St Mirren already had the victory sewn up and it could yet prove to be a crucial one.

“I spoke beforehand about the enormity of the game for us and we knew that not winning today would leave us in a very difficult position,” said Ross. “And we still are in a difficult position. But I thought the performance today reflected that situation. We played in a positive way and created a lot of opportunities to win the game. We’re building momentum and that’s just three defeats from our last 13 games and three wins in a row. That was something we needed to do. Confidence and belief are building and we have to hope that continues.”

Both sides now face crucial midweek matches. Ayr face fellow strugglers Raith Rovers on Tuesday night, while league leaders Hibernian are in Paisley the following evening.

“Because of the cup games we’ve got a really busy schedule coming up but we’ve got a stronger squad to deal with that now,” added Ross. “And I think this is a really good game on the back of this one, with the league leaders coming. It’s another one to look forward to.”