A solitary goal from Gavin Reilly sent St Mirren six points clear at the top of the Championship but such news may not be entirely well received in every quarter of Paisley.

Reilly’s first-half strike – his 20th of the campaign – as he lashed the ball into the net from close range was the cue for a once sceptical St Mirren fan to prepare himself for an inking of Reilly in the most delicate of places, having made an ill-advised pact on social media at the start of the season. 

An indelible reminder of a cold winter’s day in January could yet be tattooed onto the psyche of Saints. 

It wasn’t always pretty. In many ways, it was the kind of game last season that proved to be a considerable pain in the place where the poor tattooist is soon to go.

Inverness could have taken something in a 20-minute blitz at the start of the second period and, indeed, there was credence to the suggestion that Liam Polworth’s effort which came off the post and ran across the face of the goal had crossed the line.

But St Mirren were dogged and resilient and on current evidence would appear to have the bit between their teeth as they start to gather pace in their quest to return to the top flight.

The three points taken from this win over Inverness put daylight between themselves and nearest challengers Dundee United, albeit that the Tannadice side still have a game in hand.

Midfielder Kyle Magennis admitted that news of United’s drubbing at the hands of Falkirk was received with some delight in the St Mirren dressing room, the result sugaring another layer to the three points collected from Inverness. 

“Everyone was buzzing in the dressing room when we came in and heard that United had lost at Falkirk,” said Magennis. “Cammy Smith came in and shouted that they had lost 6-1. Everyone started cheering because it’s massive for us, both in terms of stretching our lead and maybe denting them psychologically.

“For the Dundee United result to go the way it did, as well, just stretches the gap that little bit more. So it was a good day at the office all-round. The fixtures we have coming up now probably aren’t as tough as theirs, so we’ll just keep doing what we do, winning games and hope their results go our way.

“Hopefully the Falkirk result really dents their confidence over the next few weeks and they buckle. We just need to keep winning to capitalise on every opportunity.”

Inverness will look to atone against Falkirk tomorrow evening.

Defender Gary Warren will look to draw on some of the positives in the second-half performance against St Mirren with the Englishman cognisant that a sequence of results could change the complexion of the Highlander side’s season.

“We are six points away from being in the top-four,” he said. “If you put together a run of two or three games in this league, you will be in that mix. We have to now start winning games. We can’t look at drawing games and dropping points here and there.

“We need to beat the teams around us. We’ve got Falkirk, who are below us, at home on Tuesday night, and that’s where we have to turn our attentions to, trying to pick up three points.

“They had a great result. In the last couple of games I think they’ve picked up a little bit so it’s going to be another tough game. For us, if we’re at it -and we were in the second-half - we will give teams a right good go in this league.

“I thought we were a little bit short in the first-half, and that’s probably why we came unstuck.”

Polworth’s cross that cane off the post and appeared to cross the line was not given by assistant Sean Carr, the linesman in the eye of a storm over the festive period when he denied Oli Shaw a goal in the Edinburgh derby.

Inverness manager John Robertson was gracious in his interpretation of the incident in the immediate aftermath of the game on Saturday afternoon and Warren was not looking to dwell on the incident either. 

“I don’t think there was that much protest, to be honest,” he said candidly. “It’s one of those things.”