Morton had been the dominant side prior to visiting defender Luke Conlan’s dismissal for a reckless tackle on Bobby Barr in the 54th minute.

But they could not find a way past inspired Saints shot-stopper Jamie Langfield, and a relieved Murray, below, felt it was a tremendous result for his side in the circumstances.

He said: “It’s a great point, a fantastic point for us against our local rivals in a hostile atmosphere with such a young team and going down to 10 men.

“I thought we were excellent. We did give them a wee bit of a hard time at half-time because we felt they weren’t defending properly. But full credit to the guys, they came out second half and were a credit to themselves and a credit to the club as well.

“We now need to instil that in them; in terms of defending that is what you need to do as a centre half, and the guys round about them as well. I thought their attitude second half was great.

“We didn’t create a lot of chances, we understand that — but, again, away from home … our first point on the board … we’re delighted.” Former Aberdeen goalkeeper Langfield kept Ton out with a string of important stops and was voted BBC Alba man of the match.

And Murray added: “It was a huge call for us, because Mark Ridgers has done exceptionally well, but we just felt we needed Jamie in a tactical sense for his distribution and his experience.

“Jamie’s performance didn’t surprise us. He’s been doing it in training and he did it down at Annan on Tuesday night. So it was fantastic for Jamie to start his career at St Mirren in such a manner.” Referee Greg Aitken caused controversy with some of his calls on the night, and Murray disagreed with decisions to disallow a Steven Thompson goal and send off Conlan.

He said: “It didn’t look like a red card to me. We’ll need to look at it properly and analyse it, but there’s no malice in the tackle and we’re disappointed.

“I thought the referee was very, very quick to brandish his red card. Everybody saw it. There’s not a lot I can say or add to it. It looked a very, very quick decision by the referee, and there was probably a worse one missed by one of our guys on the Morton guy.

“It is very hard for the referees and I get that, but we can’t even speak to them now. We don’t get a lot of explanation.

“I also felt it [the Thompson header after seven minutes] was a definite goal, clear as day, no foul at all, but he has blown early. Again, it’s disappointing but mistakes happen. At the moment we’re not getting a lot of luck and a few strange decisions against us and it’s starting to get a wee bit serious for us because we’re missing out on a lot of points because of it.”