A late penalty and a fine Craig Sibbald finish steered Dundee United to an enthralling comeback win over 10-man St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership.

With just six minutes left of normal time, a video assistant referee (VAR) review encouraged match official John Beaton to send off Alex Gogic for a late lunge on Nikolaj Moeller and substitute Amar Fatah cooly rolled home the spot-kick to put United ahead for the first time.

The icing was put on the cake when Sibbald, after his superb long-ranger at Ibrox last week, beautifully curled home a third in the dying seconds to send United up into third place.

It left St Mirren shell shocked after they dominated large spells of the game, but they could not find a cutting edge to match their possession, shots or corner count.

The match was level at the break after a tale of two goalkeeping mistakes had livened up a fairly turgid first period.

First, home goalie Yevhen Kucherenko flapped at a deflected cross, allowing Dan Nlundulu the easiest of headers into the unguarded top corner of his net.

St Mirren's lead didn't last, despite their domination, when their own keeper, Shamal George, inexplicably handled the ball outside the area.

United striker Zac Sapsford swung his right boot at the free-kick from 19 yards, reversing the ball under the wall into George's bottom right-hand corner.

St Mirren bossed most of the second half, creating multiple corners and vastly outdoing their hosts for shots at goal. Until, of course, the final few minutes of madness gave the scoreline, and therefore the game, a completely different complexion.

Dundee United's rollercoaster season continues. Manager Jim Goodwin has been bemoaning his side's inability to put together a full 90-minute performance.

When they do, they'll be a force to be reckoned with for sure. They didn't play all that well today, but scored two good goals as well as a perfectly-taken penalty. Grinding out the results when you're not at your best is the sign of a good team.

As for St Mirren, this was the one that got away.

For all their effort and endeavour, they couldn't really create anything too concrete, with the inconsistent Kucherenko called into action all too infrequently.

The Ukrainian did produce an outstanding first-half save from a powerful Nlundulu shot while Killian Phillips blasted over when well-placed to score.

The had a lot of the ball, created plenty of chances and still lost 3-1. Plenty of work for manager Stephen Robinson to do, with league leaders Hearts due in Paisley on Wednesday and the little matter of a League Cup semi-final next weekend.

Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin tells BBC Sportsound: "Sometimes the result is more important than the performance.

"I don't think there's a team in the Scottish Premiership that makes you defend your box as much as what St Mirren do. They're a really big, strong physical team

"Our guys at the back had to stand up and be counted and I thought they did that brilliantly. The game wasn't a great spectacle in terms of nice and neat football but It was about grinding out a result for us."

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson tells BBC Sportsound: "It's a real disappointment. We dominate large parts of the game with 25 shots with [ three ] on target, which has been a common theme for us, unfortunately.

"Decisions change the game, rightly or wrongly. I've seen footage of the first one [when Shamal George was penalised for picking up outside his box], and it's clearly on the line when he picks it up, so it's not a free-kick.

"I haven't seen an angle from behind the goal for the [Dundee United] penalty, but the decisions change the complexion of the game. The parts we can control are that we have 25 shots away from home, 13 corners, play incredibly well, and we only hit the target three times.

"That's onus, that's on me, that's on the players, we have to be better and we'll do our best to change that."

Both sides have two games in the next week. Dundee United are at Motherwell on Wednesday (19:45 GMT) before travelling to face current league-leaders Hearts at Tynecastle.

It's a huge week for St Mirren. Hearts at home in Paisley on Wednesday (19:45) followed by the first Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden against Motherwell.