Ross County co-manager Steven Ferguson praised his players' character after they bounced back from three consecutive defeats to snatch a late Ladbrokes Premiership win over St Mirren.

After bowing out of the Betfred Cup against Partick Thistle and conceding seven goals in two games against Livingston and Aberdeen, County suffered another blow 10 minutes after Ross Stewart's 62nd-minute opener when goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw let Tony Andreu's harmless-looking free-kick squirm over the line.

But County finished strongly and Marcus Fraser knocked home a cross in stoppage-time to earn them a 2-1 home win.

Ferguson said: "We are coming off the back of a couple of league defeats and it was important we won the game.

"Stuart (Kettlewell) and I spoke at length for the last 10 or so days that it didn't matter how we won the game, the big thing was to win and stop conceding cheap goals.

"Albeit we gave away a cheap goal again, but it's going to happen. We either sulk about it, make excuses and blame people, or rectify it, and we felt we rectified it. To score late on was really pleasing.

"It is a trait we want to be associated with, we never know when we are beaten and never give up.

"You have to give the players a lot of credit for that. Coming off the back of two defeats and losing a goal the way we lost the goal, it would have been easy for us to let our shoulders slump and say it's not going to be our day as well. The players didn't do that."

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin bemoaned an offside decision against Jon Obika two minutes before half-time.

Goodwin, whose team hit the bar twice through Kyle Magennis, told his club's website: "Overall, I thought we were the better team, particularly first half. The last 15-20 minutes of the first half they couldn't really get out their own half.

"We have had plenty of possession, hit the bar and had a goal chalked off for offside. Looking at it on the laptop, it looks as if big Jon is in line and that goal should have stood.

"Going in 1-0 up at half-time would have put a different complexion on the game. We didn't get that decision and I told the players we can't feel sorry for ourselves and to take the game to them again.

"To concede the first goal in the manner we did was really disappointing. We don't do enough to stop the cross and Ross Stewart has got too much time to bring it down on his chest and volley it into the net.

"I never question the players' character, they came back, and we got our own bit of luck with Tony's strike, but we get our rewards for our overall performance.

"But we lost a poor goal, we don't stop the cross again and Marcus Fraser is free on the six-yard line to tap it in."