McInnes said "The result was a big disappointment. We gifted St Mirren two goals, and played our own part in our failure to win all three points today.

"It's not new for us to face teams coming here to frustrate. It's something we've had to contend with a lot over the years and the onus is on us to break them down and have the patience, professionalism and discipline to keep playing he game and believe we will score.

"We did that, but two goals should have been enough to win the game. We gifted them a penalty which gave them a shot of adrenaline.

"When we equalise and start to push on, I felt there was a goal coming, and when it did come it was an equaliser because we had gifted them a second goal."

St Mirren boss Oran Kearney was in positive mood, suggesting his side had seen the benefit of a clear week of training.

"I was delighted with the performance and we've made big ground," he said. "Selfishly, I'm disappointed we didn't hold on for the three points. I felt we defended well as a unit but the two goals we conceded were quite sloppy.

"It's a wee bit double-edged but if you'd offered me a point before we came up here I would have taken it so we have to be happy with that."

Despite taking a point, St Mirren are actually now further adrift after Dundee also won, but Kearney is focussing on what his own side do.

He added "We've 36 points to play for at this point in time, and until our destiny is out of our hands we won't be coming in asking how others have done.

"We're through a crazy December and January, and we're through the gelling period. We've had a good weeks training and we'll hopefully have another good week's training next week."

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