St Mirren 3 - 1 Alloa: Saints keep home fans happy

St MIRREN recorded their first home league win since last May as they edged past relegation haunted Alloa at the end of a 90 minutes during which the football on show did little to warm those inside the Paisley 2021 Stadium, who endured an afternoon of terrible weather conditions.

St Mirren's Calum Gallagher celebrates his goal.

The striker’s shot was adjudged by referee Craig Charleston to have been handled by the sliding frame of Jack Baird and, after much home complaining, Layne coolly slotted home.

Bad could have gone to worse for Saints – who took way too long to get going for the liking of clearly unhappy manager Alex Rae – had Jamie Langfield not made a superb stop to parry Michael Duffy’s volley to safety.

Eventually, Saints woke up to the situation with Calum Gallagher firing narrowly wide from the edge of the area.

St Mirren's Stephen Mallan score to make it 3 -1.

Rocco Quinn was next to try his luck from distance, and despite his drive being blocked, the ball broke to Keith Watson, who swept home with his left foot.

Buoyed by pulling level, the Buddies were much better in the opening stages of the second period as they began to play with a greater tempo, and as such deservedly got their lead – albeit with the help of another somewhat fortuitous deflection.

Lawrence Shankland saw his shot charged down, but when the ball spiralled into the air it was Gallagher who reacted first to nod home ahead of Scott Gallacher in the Wasps’ goal.

Alloa pushed for an equaliser and the more the game wore on the edgier the home team became. But, just when they needed it, they got another slice of luck as Stevie Mallan latched on to a woefully short back pass to cement the points.