IN an enthralling match of nine goals, they saved the best for last.
With play drifting into injury time, and the teams seemingly destined to share eight goals, St Mirren launched one final attack.
Graham Carey made space down the left to send in a cross and Steven Thompson, with his back to goal, launched himself into the air to execute a perfect bicycle kick that arced over Michael Fraser and into the net. It was a dramatic denouement to an incredible game.
"Just pure instinct," was Thompson's modest assessment of his strike. "It's the kind of thing that only comes off once in God knows how many."
Ross County were ahead at half-time, 4-2 behind with 10 minutes to go, then scored twice to seemingly secure a draw before Thompson intervened with his second goal of the game.
It meant a second consecutive league defeat for Derek Adams' side after going 40 games unbeaten but it dispelled the myth that he presides over one of the league's more defensive-minded teams.
Few sides score four goals away from home and lose and this was a bitter lesson for the Scottish Premier League new boys. The finish was so frenetic it seemed to leave everyone inside St Mirren Park in something of a daze. "I'm done in," said a clearly stunned St Mirren boss Danny Lennon. "Talk about emotional rollercoasters; we've lost the game, got back into it, won the game twice, lost it again, then won it again."
What stung for County was they were by far the better team in the first half and more than merited their lead.
Iain Vigurs put them in front early on, weaving his way around a number of static defenders before finishing smartly.
Their second goal moments before half-time saw Grant Munro rise highest to head in Vigurs' free kick at the back post.
St Mirren, through Thompson's near post header, had been level for six minutes.
The second half was much brighter and ebbed and flowed from end to end.
St Mirren drew level for a second time from the penalty spot after Marc Fitzpatrick had bundled into Lewis Guy. The striker took the kick himself and although Michael Fraser got his hand to it, there was enough power in the shot to carry it into the net.
That was Guy's last involvement in the game and it didn't take his replacement Sam Parkin too long to get in on the act. David van Zanten swung in an enticing cross from wide on the right flank and Parkin towered above the County defence to head St Mirren in front for the first time in the game.
Lennon made another substitution early in the second half and soon that replacement made his mark. Kenny McLean already had one long-range goal to his name this season and he chalked up another with a low drive from distance that skidded beyond Fraser to put St Mirren further in front. County, so dominant in the first half, seemed stunned by the speed of the turnaround – but it was not over yet.
Vigurs' cross was turned in by Rocco Quinn at the second attempt with 10 minutes remaining and within two minutes the same player had drawn his team level with a low shot that fizzed into the far corner.
That seemed to be enough to earn County a draw but there was one more twist in the tale as injury time approached, Thompson's acrobatics earning his side the victory and leaving County disconsolate.
"We haven't done well enough defensively today," said Adams. "We've scored four goals but conceded five and we could have stopped all of them. St Mirren have got out of jail but that's the nature of football."
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