But he also praised Saints for helping produce an enthralling 90 minutes which kept the healthy 6500 crowd on the edge of their seats right until the final whistle.

“It was a right good game and was a great advert for the First Division, and I’m sure the spectators enjoyed it,” said Jocky, who felt the result was fair.

“It was a game which could have gone either way. They were better in the first half and we possibly could’ve lost the game during that period.

“But I thought our lads responded brilliantly after the break. Obviously, we would have liked to have won the game, but, on the balance of play, I thought a draw was a fair result and I’m not unhappy, especially after the way we came back.”

Also pleasing for the Dens boss was the return of defender Gary MacKenzie and midfield man Paul McHale after lengthy spells on the sidelines.

On-loan Ranger Andrew Shinnie also made an appearance as a second-half substitute, and Jocky feels there is more to come from the attacker once he gets a few more games under his belt.

“Andrew did OK, because it was difficult for him to get up to the pace of the game. It’s a lot quicker than reserve football.

“I’ve had a chat with him and, once he gets over the culture shock of the First Division, he’ll be fine.”

Meanwhile, the Dens men will be forced to make at least one change when they travel to Livingston on Saturday as top-scorer Mickael Antoine-Curier is away on international duty with Guadeloupe.

And depending on how things go, the big striker may also miss the game at Clyde the following week.

“He’s involved in a tournament and, if they get through, he’ll miss Clyde as well,” confirmed Jocky.

“But, hopefully Colin McMenamin will get another game under his belt this midweek and we also have Bob Davidson available, so we have cover.”

“His goals apart, Jon played very well,” said Craig.

“We’ve got a lot of strikers at this club, but he’s a little bit different from the others with his height and weight, and the way he puts himself about.

“We could’ve had the game wrapped up early, but St Mirren came more into it in the second half.

“But I definitely felt we deserved to win.”

The victory means United remain only three points behind third-placed Hearts, and Craig feels it’s vitally important they stay as close as possible to the in-form Tynecastle outfit ahead of their meeting later this month.

He said, “We’ve got a difficult sequence of games coming, with Inverness Caley on Saturday followed by games against Rangers and Hearts, so it was important we picked up the points at Love Street.

“We want to gather as many points as possible so we can keep on Hearts’ coat-tails and also see if we can open up a gap on the teams below us.”

Meanwhile, tickets for the home match against Rangers on Saturday, December 13 (KO 12.30), are now on sale from the club shop to both home and away supporters. Rangers fans will be housed in the Fair Play enclosure and Shed End.

Tickets are priced £25/£22 for adults and £13/£12 for concessions.

Tickets for all areas can also be purchased with credit/debit card or by calling 01382 833166 (options 1 and 3).

The draw stretched Saints’ advantage at the top to four points and Derek emphasised, “We are top and the challenge is to stay there.

“We wanted to win at Dundee but didn’t. However, we picked up an away point from a tricky fixture. We can’t play well all the time, and it was a good point.”

Stuart McCaffrey missed the game with a calf muscle injury, but he’ll, hopefully, be fit enough to face QOS at home this Saturday. Martin Hardie will also be available now his one-match suspension has been served.