St Mirren could almost be accused of abusing their hosts' festive hospitality after they carved up Dundee with two goals from emergency striker Kenny McLean and a strike of the highest quality from teenager Stevie Mallan.

The match was a demonstration not only of what can happen when needs must, but also how quickly sporting situations can be transformed.

It was, after all, just a few weeks ago that the absence of Steven Thompson through injury was being seen as the single biggest problem facing St Mirren, a club that simply could not score goals.

Yet his sending-off last week and subsequent suspension were what forced McLean into a new role leading the line.

Caretaker manager Gary Teale explained: "Circumstances dictated [McLean's deployment up front] last week with Stevie's sending-off, but I had thought about it previously because we hadn't been scoring goals and you're wondering what we can do to change things

"Kenny ended up there last week and was excellent so I thought we might as well just stick to that."

The 22-year-old's match-winning performance only reinforced Teale's view of McLean's potential. "He's our top goalscorer anyway," the former Scotland international pointed out. "Kenny possesses an awful lot of the attributes you need to be a top footballer.

"You need a slice of luck in football, somebody to come along and take a chance on you, but hopefully for my sake that won't happen until the summer in Kenny's case."

Anyone who witnessed the first of McLean's two goals would surely have been impressed. He capitalised on Thomas Konrad's blunder inside his own half and touched the ball just twice on the way to opening the scoring, once to release Jeroen Tesselaar on the left and then taking the return ball in his stride to slam it sweetly past Kyle Letheren.

Dundee had begun reasonably well, but thereafter were poor enough to justify manager Paul Hartley's assessment that this was their worst performance of the season.

Not that they were out of it until the 68th minute when Mallan won a challenge just inside Dundee territory, beat one man, slipped the ball through another's legs and then, having covered around 20 yards, steadied himself and sent a swerving shot past Letheren.

If, as Teale claims, he does that in training every day then it may only be a matter of time before the 18-year-old is also attracting attention from elsewhere.

McLean scored his second from the penalty spot after being the victim of a clumsy challenge from Paul McGinn's, which saw a red card issued to the defender.

Gary Irvine's late consolation strike for Dundee failed to spoil the mood for the team that had lifted itself off the bottom of the Premiership.

"That was a long time coming," McLean said. "We took a lot from the way we played last week, but obviously when the result doesn't go your way, you're still a bit disappointed. To put both together today for the first time in a long time was great."