LEWIS MORGAN was once again the star of the show as St Mirren made it seven consecutive home wins this season in all competitions to climb to second place in the Championship table.
The highly-rated 20-year-old scored with either foot, while Cammy Smith also netted, as the Buddies bounced back from last week’s defeat at Dunfermline.
Jason Kerr’s header in 64 minutes made things a little more nervous than they might have been, but it was a well-deserved win.
St Mirren manager Jack Ross said: “We’ve made this place a difficult place to come – we haven’t lost here since January – and that gives us a great platform.
“Seven consecutive home victories is very good at any level of football, so we’re proud of that.
“Our reaction to losing games this season has been very good this season and we were up against a difficult side who had an advantage of physicality at set pieces. We have played better this season but we were resilient.”
Queens actually started brighter and had the ball in the net after eight minutes, but it was correctly ruled out for offside.
Stephen Dobbie made a great diagonal run in the box then played a lovely reverse pass that Derek Lyle tucked into the net but he was a couple of yards in front of the last Saints defender.
Two minutes later the visitors threatened again when Lyndon Dykes burst down the left and tried to beat Craig Samson from the edge of the box, but the Saints keeper was right behind it.
However, once St Mirren got into their stride on the slick surface, the Palmerston men were in trouble.
Two goals in the space of three minutes effectively set up the win for the Paisley side, who regained their form after last week’s surprise 3-0 defeat in Fife.
Liam Smith was heavily involved in both goals as he showed his overlapping qualities on the right.
His ball into the box in 25 minutes was cleverly laid off by Gavin Reilly and Cammy Smith showed great desire to get to the ball first and steer a low shot past Alan Martin.
Then three minutes later Hearts loanee Smith was the architect again as he burst down the right but this time his ball in was deflected to the edge of the box.
Lewis Morgan was unmarked and he smacked a low left-foot shot into the right corner for his fourth goal in four games.
Morgan nearly had Queens in trouble again in 38 minutes when he eased away from Callum Fordyce to move on to his left side and tried to beat Martin at his right post, but the keeper saved well.
Saints were forced into a change two minutes into the second half when Josh Todd fell awkwardly and damaged his left shoulder and Ross Stewart came on, but the change did not affect them as they went three up in 54 minutes.
It was another classic from Morgan. Saints worked a short corner on the left side and Morgan was given so much space as he powered a right foot shot past Martin from 22 yards.
The one blemish for the Paisley side was the concession of a soft goal in 64 minutes and it made matters more nervous for the home fans than they should have been.
Terrible marking at the back post as Dobbie clipped in a free kick from the right side allowed Jason Kerr to fire looped a header back across Samson and into the right corner.
It gave Queens renewed hope and it made for a nervous finish for Ross and his coaching staff.
Dobbie came close with a deflected free kick in 72 minutes that flew just wide, then Samson pulled off a fabulous reaction save to deny Callum Fordyce two minutes later.
However, St Mirren held firm, regained control and finished the match strongly to ensure the victory.
It was the ideal way for Jamie McCart to come in and make his debut and he looked very assured.
A combination of injuries and suspensions depleted St Mirren’s defence and they were given dispensation to sign McCart on an emergency loan from Celtic.
The 20-year-old is in Paisley for three months and looks like he could be invaluable as he coped well against the experienced front two of Lyle and Dobbie.
Queens boss Gary Naysmith was in no doubt why his were defeated. He said: "The reason we lost the game was our defending. We had 14 shots on goal, nine on target. They had 10, four on target and they have won 3-1.
“Every goal was avoidable. It was individual mistakes that cost us. Their keeper played well and he made a big save to stop us going to 3-2 so that might have changed things.”
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