St Mirren picked up an important three points in the race for Europe after a brilliant win away to Dundee in Stephen Robinson's 100th match in charge.
Alex Gogic gave Saints a half-time lead before goals from Scott Tanser and Toyosi Olusanya put us further in front in the second-half. Dundee pulled a goal back through Michael Mellon, but it was not enough to stop the Buddies returning to Paisley with the points.
There was one change to the side that lost narrowly to Rangers last week with Greg Kiltie not fit enough to start the game having not trained during the week. Olusanya came in for the forward who was on the bench.
Saints started brightly - forcing a number of corners in the opening minutes with James Bolton putting a free header over in the third minute after meeting Caolan Boyd-Munce's ball in. Scott Tanser should have scored when he was found in space inside the area but he lashed the effort over. The offside flag was raised in any case.
Zach Hemming got two strong hands behind a powerful effort from Luke McCowan on 36 minutes. The Dundee captain had a lot of room to run into and let fly from 20 yards with the Saints goalkeeper down well to push away. Owen Dodgson then saw his follow-up deflected over.
The Buddies took the lead with just over five minutes of the half remaining. A Boyd-Munce corner was fed back out to Ryan Strain who swung the ball in from the right-hand side. The Dundee defence couldn't deal with it and Gogic reacted quickest to force home at the near post.
Dundee started the second-half with intent when Lyall Cameron had a powerful strike held by Hemming in the first minute after the restart.
But it was Saints who would have the best opportunity when Ryan Strain saw his free-kick tipped over the bar by McCracken on 58 minutes. Just a minute later the Buddies would double their advantage when Scott Tanser scored. A flick-on was met by Bolton who nodded on himself with Tanser managing to squeeze in ahead of the Dundee defence. The left-wing-back composed himself before smashing into the corner of the net to the delirium of the near 1,500 travelling support.
It could have got better just three minutes later when substitute Keanu Baccus found Olusanya to send him one-on-one with the goalkeeper but the Dens stopper managed to block.
Olusanya would get his name on the scoresheet as he made it 3-0 with less than 20 minutes to go. Mikael Mandron found his path too crowded to get a shot away but slipped the ball to Olusanya on the left-hand side of the box. The forward fired into the net through the legs of McCracken.
Dundee pulled a goal back with 13 minutes to play when substitute Michael Mellon headed in from close-range. The forward met a header back across goal at the far post and nodded in to reduce the deficit.
The hosts would exert more pressure as they looked for a way back into the match with Cameron sending a long-range strike just by the post, while Hemming did well to tip a low McCowan hit on to the post as well. But Saints held firm and could have added a fourth in the final stages with James Scott seeing his effort from the edge of the area pushed away by McCracken.
In the end it was a perfect way for Saints to celebrate Stephen Robinson's 100th match in charge as the Buddies move five points ahead of Dundee with three to play.
Full-Time: Dundee 1-3 St Mirren
St Mirren: Hemming, Bolton, Gogic, Fraser, Strain (Dunne 87), O'Hara (c), Boyd-Munce, Tanser, Olusanya (Scott 77), Mandron, McMenamin (Baccus 61)
Subs Not Used: Urminsky, Taylor, Brown, Flynn, Kiltie, Jamieson
Dundee: McCracken, McGhee, Dodgson, Donnelly, Lamie (Costelloe 77), Portales, Cameron (Mulligan 82), McCowan, Bakayoko (Main 66), Tiffoney (Mellon 66), Sylla (Boateng 46)
Subs Not Used: Sharp, Astley, Robinson, Robertson
Referee: Matthew MacDermid
Assistant Referee: David McGeachie
Assistant Referee: John Stewart
Fourth Official: George Calder
VAR: Alan Muir
Attendance: 6,877
