HE was a whisker away from snatching victory at the death, but St Mirren’s Cammy Smith insists Saturday’s draw with Falkirk is still a point gained – not two points dropped.

The two sides played out a goalless 90 minutes at the Falkirk Stadium with talking points few and far between in Paul Hartley’s second game in charge of the Bairns.

His side may feel they edged proceedings but it was Smith who had a glorious opportunity to claim all three points in the final seconds, only to see his close-range effort blocked by onrushing keeper Robbie Thomson.

The stalemate keeps St Mirren top of the Championship – two points clear of Dunfermline – and Smith believes the Buddies can be satisfied with a share of the spoils from what was a thoroughly forgettable encounter.

“You could look back on games like this and say ‘we weren’t at our best but we didn’t get beat’,” Smith said. “You need to have that mentality and the manager and experienced players pass that down.

“We need to buy into it and I think we have done that. If you can’t win, you make sure you don’t get beat. It’s a good point at the end of the day and leaves us still top of the table.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game. Recent results have picked up for them and Falkirk’s always been a hard place to come.”

Although they’ve yet to score under Hartley, a point ensured the Bairns kept their fourth successive clean sheet as they look to recover from a poor start to the campaign.

But that could all have been very different had Smith managed to roll the ball under Thomson as the final whistle approached, missing the opportunity to give his side two league wins from two over Falkirk this term.

“Yeah, I’m a bit disappointed [not to score],” the former Aberdeen youngster admitted. “I’ve managed to score a few this season and if I’d tucked that away at the end it would’ve been a massive three points.

“I’ll need to see it back. The keeper’s come out and made a good save, I was going to try and slide it underneath him but he’s spread himself. On another day maybe I’ll slot it home.

“But we can’t be too disappointed with a point. We dug in, they maybe had long spells where they felt they were on top and we had little spells where we looked dangerous.

“There was chances at both ends and a draw was probably a fair result.”

Top of the table heading into next week’s Renfrewshire derby against Morton, Saints are in a good place to avenge their 4-1 thumping at the hands of their oldest rivals in August.

But in a Championship campaign that has already thrown up its share of shocks and surprises, Jack Ross’ side will know that nothing can be taken for granted.

And Smith reckons Falkirk’s early season strife is a case in point, with the Bairns still mired in second bottom spot, a point behind Inverness Caley Thistle in eighth.

The 22-year-old added: “I know from playing Falkirk a few times that they’ve got good players and a good manager, so I think their position at the moment is false.

“But there’s a long way to go and they’ll be looking at the play-off places, I’m guessing. They’ll try to climb the table over the course of the season and get themselves up there but the thing about this league is there’s no easy games – you have to earn the right to pick up points”