Forgotten man Steven McGarry proved to St Mirren manager Tom Hendrie that he warrants a place in the side after notching the winner over St Johnstone to give his side hope of avoiding relegation.

The Buddies welcomed an inexperienced Saints team to Love Street still with hopes of staying in the Premier League.

They are just three points adrift of in-form Dundee United, but Hendrie admitted that victory here was crucial.

He was forced to make two changes from the side crushed 4-0 by the Tannadice outfit with McGarry and Mark Yardley coming in for Scott Walker and the departed Moussa Dagnogo.

Despite their defeat to Celtic in midweek St Johnstone took great confidence for their display and manager Sandy Clark still had his eyes on a sixth-place finish.

But he was once again hindered by injuries and suspensions which claimed experienced duo Momo Sylla and Paul Kane and the McDiarmid Park boss drafted in Michael O'Neill and Paul Hartley.

Because of the situation youngsters Ross Forsyth and Brendan Crozier stayed in the side for their second first-team starts and teenage duo Mark Ferry, Kevin Cuthbert and Marc McCulloch (20) were on the bench hoping for their first first-team action.

The visitors were on the back-foot in the early exchanges and it was the recalled McGarry, who went close on two occasions in the opening three minutes.

First he blasted over inside the box and then curled a 22-yard effort just past the Alan Main's post.

But at the other end they St Mirren were fortunate not to go behind in the seventh minute when 18-year-old striker Kiegan Parker found space in the box, but snatched at the opportunity and fired over.

The visitors came back into the game as the half wore on with Parker causing the home defence problems with his pace.

He twisted and turned to find space on the edge of the area in the 15th minute, but his weak shot was comfortably saved by Ludovic Roy in the St Mirren goal.

Two minutes later Hartley came within inches of the opener when Parker found Crozier, who in turn played the ball to the former Hibernian man, who turned and fired just past the post from 10 yards with Roy desperately scurrying across his goal-line.

But the home side made the vital break-through in the 29th minute when Scott MacKenzie played a superb defence-splitting pass through to Chris Kerr and he crossed to the unmarked McGarry, who curled the ball into the bottom corner.

St Johnstone tried to hit back before the break and the home side survived an amazing let-off in the 35th minute.

O'Neill swung in a free-kick from the right and Yardley somehow blocked Forsyth's header off the line and then skipper Tommy Turner did the same with Parker's follow-up effort.

St Johnstone's Stephen Frail was the first player to go into the book in the 41st minute for pulling down Ricky Gillies as the visitors began to lose their patience.

Clark brought Tommy Lovenkrands on at the break for O'Neill and hoped he could provide the spark for his side.

The second-half was desperately short of any incident and only a booking for Hartley and Jose Quitongo, coming on for Graham Fenton, failed to bring any excitement for the 4,565 fans.

Clark introduced another of his young proteges in the 61st minute in teenager Ferry for Frail - but he and his side were running out of ideas and time to get something from the game.

St Johnstone survived a penalty scare in the 68th minute when Quitongo went down under the challenge of Crozier, but referee Stuart Dougal rightly waved away the protests.

The visitors were stirred by the incident and just two minutes later Hartley gave St Mirren a warning with a fierce shot just over the bar.

McCulloch came on for Crozier in the 76th minute as Clark threw caution to the wind.

But the home side almost killed the game off in the 78th minute when Gillies found Sergei Baltacha, whose stinging drive was saved by Main at the second attempt. Three minutes later Main saved a great effort from Quitongo.

The St Johnstone goalkeeper made an embarrassing blunder in the 83rd minute when he failed to clear the ball, but Yardley shot straight at him from point-blank range.