IF TEAMS really didn't care about largely meaningless end-of-season games, they wouldn't push for last-minute winners. St Mirren did just that yesterday, though, and earned deserved reward when Will Haining heaved himself high to head-in a free-kick sweetly fired in to just the right area by Andy Dorman. In the process, the Love Street men bagged a first goal of the season against a Kilmarnock side against whom they had previously scuffed out two scoreless draws and lost by a single goal.

As the lowest scorers across the entire Scottish senior set-up there is much that the Paisley club lack, but their application can never be questioned. They refused to let an understandably tepid encounter finish coolly, even when Alan Combe saved brilliantly low to his left after John Potter seemed as if he would be on the mark with a curling, fizzing drive minutes from the end.

"I have told the players you are still judged on these games and if you don't win, you will be open to criticism," St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson said afterwards. "It's the first thing people will do so, so we told the players to make sure they were at it."

They were, mostly, even if the stakes for two teams in constant pursuit of self-improvement don't really like to talk about. St Mirren and Kilmarnock won't be thrilled that in the closing weeks of the season they found themselves involved in a battle not to finish second-last in the SPL, especially when Gretna stopped operating in any meaningful sense months ago.

Both yesterday's combatants fancied themselves to be at least keeping pace with Falkirk and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. MacPherson certainly had high hopes and therefore will take limited pleasure from a campaign in which when Brooks Mileson's methods made consolidation in the upper tier a cake-walk. He should derive real satisfaction from being the first manager in two decades to guarantee Paisley top-flight football across three seasons.

His opposite number, Jim Jefferies, meanwhile, will simply be relieved when May 17 comes around. It hasn't happened for sale-weakened Kilmarnock side this season and the most profound injury problems in the league hardly helped the Ayrshire club's cause.

A crowd of only 3,690 told of the meagre appetite for an encounter from which precious little could be expected. It was alright, after a fashion, though. You couldn't fault the application of both teams. Neither gave the impression of going through the motions after a predictably slow start. St Mirren, as was natural for a home team playing in front of permanently-nippy supporters, were first to rouse themselves into concerted effort to prise openings. Andy Dorman, zipped about with purpose and poise.

The Englishman, signed in the January transfer window on the back of the MSL season with New England, will be doing that in Paisley for years according to MacPherson, whatever appeal he might hold for other clubs. "He is contracted to us for a long, long time; the next couple of years at least," MacPherson said. "He has that bit of quality where he can make something happen. He's looked a bit jaded over the past few weeks and we may give him a rest. I feel that he can improve and there is more to come from him."

The home side exerted most of the pressure but it was Jefferies' men who should have taken the lead after a slip from David Barron allowed Jamie Hamill a clear sight of the St Mirren goal midway through the first period. John Potter closed that by sliding in to block an unconvincing shot. It was in sharp contrast to the ripping drive from Billy Mehmet that Alan Combe saved before blocking a cleanly-struck effort from the same player.

The pace picked up in the second period and Mark Howard's finger-tips must have stung after the keeper touched over a fierce biff from Danny Invincibile. But Killie produced too few moments in and around their opponents box and paid the penalty.