Curtis Main believes his Buddies showed they’d learned from their Motherwell mistake to see off the Staggies.
And the powerful striker feels another quick start against St Johnstone this weekend could set them up with a shot at European football next season.
St Mirren came unstuck at Fir Park last week when the Steelmen raced into a two-goal lead inside the first 20 minutes, eventually going on to return home to Paisley empty-handed.
They ensured there was no repeat performance on Saturday against Ross County, with the Buddies racing out of the traps and Declan Gallagher netting what turned out to be the winner after just seven minutes.
Main insists getting ahead early in any Premiership clash is crucial to picking up maximum points.
And the 30-year-old is determined to help lead his side on a run that could see them bag a tilt at Europe.
Main told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “It was so disappointing losing at Motherwell last week because that was a game we felt we could take three points from. But we showed a great reaction to that against County.
“We were excellent in the first 20 minutes, really took the game to them and that set the tone for the rest of it.
“When you get an early goal in this division it can be very difficult to overturn it. We fully deserved the victory in the end.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with that [qualifying for Europe]. We’re just concentrating on winning our games and making the top-six – anything can happen after that and that’s when we’ll start to look at those things.
“But that’s what we’ve set out to achieve and we’re going about it all right at the moment. We just want to get on the kind of run I was talking about last month and not let anyone take points from us.
“Hopefully, we can get a few bodies back from the treatment room for St Johnstone to make the squad a bit stronger.
“Having said that, you look at the lads who came in. I think that was only Ryan Flynn’s third start of the season but he was terrific and Greg Kiltie was also amazing.”
Main started the Ross County game alongside January deadline day recruit and fellow striker Tony Watt for just the second time.
The duo showed signs of developing a blossoming relationship on the pitch, with Main confident they’ll strike an even better partnership with a full week of training alongide each other under their belts.
Main said: “Tony’s just new in the building and we haven’t done much together on the training ground, because there have been so many games to prepare for. That’s meant we’ve had to try and mesh together on match days.
“This week we should have the time to get a few sessions under our belt and work on our understanding.
“I think the more Tony finds his feet at the club and within our system, and gets himself up to match fitness, then it’ll be looking pretty positive for us towards the end of the season.
“I’m a bit disappointed not to come away with two or three goals from the County game, but I had a couple cleared off the line, hit the post and did everything right.
“Unfortunately, so did their defenders. They were throwing their bodies at the ball.
“We should have been out of sight and we should have put the game to bed a lot earlier, but we’ll try and take those chances this Saturday.”
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