St Mirren 0-1 Motherwell: Stephen Robinson rues Liam Kelly's brilliance as visitors stun dominant hosts

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson rued "some of the best saves I've seen" as Liam Kelly's heroics inspired managerless Motherwell to a winning Scottish Premiership start in Paisley.

Kevin van Veen's first-half penalty proved decisive as Motherwell rallied from their dismal European exit to Sligo Rovers and subsequent departure of Graham Alexander.

Dominant St Mirren could find no way past stand-out goalkeeper Kelly and Motherwell clung on despite losing Ricki Lamie to a late red card.

"There's not a lot more we can do," said Robinson. "We've created 10-12 clear chances, the ones we did get on target we have to take our hat off to Liam Kelly, he was in inspired form.

"He was outstanding - some of the best saves I've seen. We'll play a heck of a lot worse than that and pick up points."

• Reaction & as it happened

Both sides emerged blinking into the dazzling Paisley sunshine desperate to ease a sense of gloom, with St Mirren having already tumbled to a group-stage League Cup exit while Motherwell's European adventure was brief and bruising.

St Mirren's mood was to darken further, mainly down to Kelly and his lightning reflexes.

The Scotland squad keeper produced outrageous saves either side of half-time, somehow getting a hand to a Jonah Ayunga header then scooping a glancing effort from substitute Curtis Main over the top.

Ryan Strain had also clipped the post from point-blank range before Motherwell - having shown precious little threat - nicked the lead when Blair Spittal's drive hit the outstretched arm of Scott Tanser.

Van Veen calmly rolled in the penalty to send Trevor Carson the wrong way and propel Motherwell on their way to a first opening-weekend win in six years.

St Mirren kept battering away, with Ayunga's header and a piledriver free-kick from Main repelled by Kelly, before a tousy contest boiled over when Lamie was dismissed for a horrible challenge on Keanu Baccus. A painful introduction to Scottish football for the Australian as Motherwell savoured the sweet relief of victory.

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St Mirren started with six summer arrivals in their reshaped line-up and created enough chances to win by a distance.

Their finishing clearly needs refinement but there were plenty of encouraging signs for boss Robinson, with Scotland international Declan Gallagher a commanding figure at centre-back and Ayunga providing a physical attacking focal point.

Former Motherwell boss Robinson was unequivocal pre-match as he rubbished reports linking him with the Fir Park vacancy - "a load of nonsense" he succinctly put it - and academy director Hammell proved a safe pair of hands in stepping into the managerial breach 48 hours after Alexander's abrupt exit.

The Fir Park side were again painfully short of creative punch, not helped by a lack of width and pace, but at least showed plenty of dogged determination to eke out just a fourth league victory in 19 games in 2022.

This win will fool no-one, though. Whoever takes the reins full-time has a mountain of work to get through.

What they said

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: "It's not often at St Mirren you get a standing ovation when you lose, but I think the fans can see where we're going and the new players bedding in and getting better."

Motherwell interim boss Steven Hammell: "It's been a tough week with the manager [leaving] and the trip to Sligo not going our way, but we felt we could come here and win.

"We knew we had to defend our box well, they flood it at every occasion, but we stood up and dealt with that. Liam has been brilliant and it's no surprise to me what he's produced there. The save first half is world class."

What's next?

St Mirren next travel to face Aberdeen on Saturday (15:00 GMT) at the same time as Motherwell host St Johnstone.