St Mirren goalkeeper Dean Lyness feels their win over Motherwell was coming – and he is confident they can build on it.

Saints moved six points behind their ninth-placed opponents with a 1-0 victory at Fir Park on Saturday and now aim to move further away from bottom club Dundee when they host St Johnstone on Boxing Day.

And Lyness is confident they have the team spirit to get themselves out of relegation trouble.

"You saw on Saturday the character we have got," he said. "The last four or five weeks we have really progressed without getting the results. We have just been patient and kept ticking away and it was nice to get the three points on Saturday.

"It's a massive win. We knew how big the game was going into it. It was the start of a massive week with three games until the break. So we knew how big it was and hopefully we can build on the back of it."

Lyness has had to show patience personally after signing for the club in September when second-choice 'keeper Danny Rogers suffered an injury. After the departure of number one Craig Samson, Lyness made his debut against Aberdeen when on-loan Rogers was ineligible to face his parent club.

And the former Burton and Blackpool player vindicated Oran Kearney's decision to retain his services at Fir Park when he made a close-range stop from David Turnbull to secure three points deep into stoppage-time.

"It's frustrating when you're not playing but you have just got to keep yourself right and that's all I have tried to do, so when an opportunity came up I was ready to take it," the 27-year-old said.