Zander: Defensively we were excellent

Barrie McKay’s first half strike ultimately separated the sides, but had it not been for a magnificent double-save from Zander Clark in the final moments, St Mirren may well have left Gorgie with a share of the spoils.

“It wasn’t pretty,” he laughed. “But we dug deep when we had to. It was a lovely goal from Barrie to get us on the way. We dominated the game for a bit and then they came into it second half and put us under a bit of pressure, but I thought as a defensive unit we dealt with everything they threw at us.

“It is important to try win the home games. We knew after last weekend that it was going to be a difficult game. They have a good home record, but so do we. So, tonight it was up to us to take the game to them and impose ourselves on the game, which I thought we did for large spells.

“As a goalkeeper, you always want to go into games and keep a clean sheet. If you can do that without making saves, then brilliant, but when you are called upon, and you make saves that help the team out, then that is very pleasing.

“That is not just down to me though, it’s about the back five as a whole. They were all excellent. Toby and Kye and then big James coming in having only trained with us a couple of times, to come in and put in a performance like that was excellent.”