A solitary Tete Yengi goal was the difference between Livingston and St Mirren as the West Lothian side claimed their first win in 17 games to ignite hopes of staving off relegation.
David Martindale’s side survived an onslaught of attacks in the second half to close the gap at the bottom of the table to just three points.
It was St Mirren who dominated the early passages of play in this one. Caolan Boyd-Munce created chance after chance down the left hand side, but his strikers couldn’t manage to find the back of the net.
After twenty minutes however the hosts grew into the game and started to cause a threat on the attack. Stephen Kelly forced an acrobatic save from Zach Hemming after unlashing a 25-yard effort but it was a portent of what was to come.
Martindale’s side controlled the remainder of the first half before getting their reward on the stroke of the break. In added time a Kelly corner picked out Ayo Obileye in the box who parried the ball down to Yengi who slotted the ball home for his second in two games.
The second half started the same as the first with Stephen Robinson’s side causing all sorts of problems for the Livingston defence but couldn’t find the back of the net.
St Mirren had a glorious opportunity to get back level after 75 minutes from the penalty spot. After a lengthy VAR review referee Euan Anderson pointed to the spot after a foul by David Carson on Olusanya.
Up stepped Michael Mandron whose low strike into the bottom left corner was saved and cleared by Shamal George to keep the hosts ahead.
St Mirren continued to try and find an equaliser with Mandron going close once again in added time but couldn’t find that all important goal.
It’s a result that reignites the relegation battle in the Scottish premiership closing the gap to just 3 points between Ross County and Livingston who play each other next Saturday.
