St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson was delighted with the character his side showed to come away from Dingwall with all three points.
After taking the lead in the first half through Alex Iacovitti, Ross County pegged them back immediately after the restart through Michee Efete, before Scott Tanser was sent off after a second yellow card.
However, it was the Paisley outfit who prevailed in the end thanks to Oisin Smyth’s late free-kick.
Robinson felt that showed the mental fortitude within his squad as St Mirren took the points back down the A9 to extend their advantage in the top six – for the time being at least.
“I think the character shown was superb,” Robinson reflected.
“It was a real tough game and I’m sure (Ross County boss) Don (Cowie) said the same.
“I thought we deserved the lead at half-time, but we started the second half really poorly, but our response to that was terrific.
“We go down to 10 men and it would be easy to hang in for a point, but we made positive substitutions, with Jonah Ayunga coming on and stretching the game.
“I thought we deserved to win. Arguably there were three penalties in the game, two for us.
“Killian Phillips’ is a certain penalty, there’s a handball as well where he saves it on the line and it hits his face. We’ve also seen penalties given for Ross County’s claim at the other end.
“Ultimately, I believe the right outcome has come from the game.”
Ross County, meanwhile, saw it as an opportunity missed having had the numerical advantage on the pitch for around half an hour.
Even after Tanser’s sending off, it was the visitors creating more and posing more of a threat.
With County now at risk this weekend of slipping below St Johnstone and Hearts, who play each other tomorrow, manager Don Cowie is particularly disappointed to not take advantage.
“First of all it’s a massive opportunity missed,” he stressed.
“I was really frustrated at half time with the group, and I thought they reacted really well to score so early.
“When St Mirren go down to 10 men, it’s perfectly poised for us, but we did nowhere near enough to go on and win the game.
“We did not test them enough considering they were down to 10 men.”
