Calvin Ramsay scoresImage source, SNS

At a glance

  • Ramsay and Sule send St Mirren to victory to halt losing run

  • Fink responds for Dundee in second half

  • Hamilton hits cross bar in the final minute for visitors before teams clash at full-time

Highlights: St Mirren v Dundee

24/10/26

ByStuart Mitchell
BBC Sport Scotland

St Mirren battled Storm Boelo to defeat Dundee and end their run of five consecutive Scottish Premiership defeats with a much-welcomed victory.

Calvin Ramsay's first goal for the Paisley side and a header from Eseosa Sule also ended Dundee's bright run of three games without defeat.

St Mirren settled the better in the difficult weather conditions, with Ismeal Kabia looking threatening every time he picked up the ball.

The opener came when striker Sule had drifted out wide. Ramsay charged through the gap in the centre of Dundee's defence, and he nicked in ahead of Dundee goalkeeper Owen Goodman to squeeze the ball home.

St Mirren had to wait until the second half for comfort, when Killian Phillips breezed out wide to clip in a cross for Sule to head in.

Bradley Fink made it a nervy one for the home side.

The striker's first attempt was saved by St Mirren goalkeeper Jacob Chapman, who could only push the ball back to the Dundee man to finish.

Steven Pressley's side could sense weakness and looked more of a threat going forward in the closing stages and with almost the last kick of the game, Dundee captain Ethan Hamilton rattled the crossbar with a close range strike. St Mirren showed their style and their stability, to claim a vital three points.

St Mirren analysis: Sule steps up

Ahead of kick-off, St Mirren manager Craig McLeish stated his side were confident and that it was important to believe in the process, and that's how it looked.

Arsenal loanee Ismeal Kabia was a constant threat in the first half to show that confidence.

And intelligent awareness from Ramsay sparked the celebrations in Paisley with some clever team movement.

While goalkeeper Chapman had the ball at his feet, Dundee pushed up with the away side expecting the ball to go short. Ramsay spotted a huge gap in the Dundee defence and exploited it.

The surprise may have been that it took so long for Saints to grab a second, and some excellent movement again led to Phillips crossing for Sule to add a goal to his assist.

The young forward signed from West Brom has a bit of weight on his shoulders earlier than expected, with injury to Nikolas Agrafiotis.

Two goals and an assist in his last two games shows he looks more than capable of holding that responsibility.

Dundee analysis: Disappointment for Dark Blues

After receiving praise for their performance against Rangers last Saturday, this is a disappointing result for Dundee.

Head coach Steven Pressley stressed the need to get the basics right otherwise they would struggle to get a result, and his players found it difficult to piece things together in the first half.

It took a while for them to get going, with Dundee returning to the dressing room at half-time after 45 minutes where they had two shots and zero on target.

That changed to 15 in the second half, but they only managed four on target.

Yet, despite that slow start from Dundee, there were two moments that could have changed the narrative.

Ashley Hay bulleted a close range header wide, when it looked like he was about to burst the net. Then Ethan Hamilton's strike was just an inch from doing the same in the final minute.

What they said

St Mirren manager Craig McLeish tells BBC Scotland: "It is massive for us just to get out of the run that we've been on. Through the full time we've been trying to shut out the news from outside and focus on what we are trying to do. We deserved that today.

"We probably needed a good performance in all aspects of our game. [Dundee] have that shot at the end, and if that goes in then I think I would've been walking home tonight. We created enough to score more, and showed the side of our game that got us success at the start of the season."

Dundee head coach Steven Pressley tells BBC Scotland: "I think over the course of the game there was very little in it. I thought in the first half we controlled a lot of the ball but didn't ask questions of [St Mirren] defensively.

"Second half we were much better in that respect, better decision making on when to play in behind and when to control the game. We're disappointed to come away with nothing, but credit to St Mirren they showed a lot of resilience and character today."

Player of the match

Number: 47 C. Ramsay
Average rating 7.82
Number: 47 C. Ramsay
Average Rating: 7.82
Number: 9 E. Sule
Average Rating: 7.32
Number: 19 I. Kabia
Average Rating: 7.29
Number: 3 D. John
Average Rating: 7.26
Number: 22 M. Fraser
Average Rating: 7.24
Number: 1 J. Chapman
Average Rating: 7.16
Number: 16 L. Thomas
Average Rating: 7.13
Number: 88 K. Phillips
Average Rating: 7.06
Number: 8 R. Carr
Average Rating: 7.06
Number: 53 H. Fieldson
Average Rating: 6.97
Number: 13 A. Gogić
Average Rating: 6.97
Number: 23 C. Mochrie
Average Rating: 6.87
Number: 20 J. Young
Average Rating: 6.14

After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.