Leaders Hearts remain six points in front as they were beaten for only the third time in the Premiership this season, with Miguel Freckleton's 88th-minute header ending a poor run of form for St Mirren.

Since winning the League Cup in December, Stephen Robinson's side have slipped down the table but the hosts were worthy winners as Hearts were reduced to 10 men for the third time in five league outings.

Hearts captain Craig Halkett was ordered off on the half hour for bringing down Jacob Devaney as the last man.

It looked like the visitors would escape with a point until Freckleton powered in a header from a late corner.

Hearts had endured a first-half of their nightmares. The only thing that was missing was a home goal.

Outfought all over the pitch, toothless in attack and calamitous at the back. It was not a performance we've seen from Hearts this season.

St Mirren hit the bar, Alexander Schwolow was forced into a few flying saves, and then Halkett went for an early shower for chopping down Devaney after Stuart Findlay lost the ball at the back.

Alex Gogic hit the post and Marcus Fraser powered in a header, but it was ruled out for offside. Harry Milne caught Jayden Richardson and Steven McLean gave a penalty. It was overturned, with the challenge occurring outside the box.

Somehow, the score remained level. Hearts were on the ropes, but not floored. Punchdrunk, but not on the canvas.

The second-half was a tighter affair, but Schwolow was called upon to produce a wonder-save that matched Craig Gordon's at Dundee a few weeks ago. This time, it was Mikael Mandron who could find no way through from close range.

It seemed Hearts' resolve would hold until Declan John whipped an inviting corner to the front post and Freckleton rose highest to thump his header home.

With games to be played on Wednesday night, Celtic and Rangers know they have a chance to narrow the gap to three points against Aberdeen and Kilmarnock respectively. It's quite the carrot.

St Mirren pull themselves seven points away from the relegation play-off place, leaping up to ninth after a first win in eight.

Unlike the previous games in which Hearts' have been reduced to 10 men, Halkett's red card came with McInnes' side already struggling.

They'd taken just one shot before that moment which changed the landscape, and the answer to the question - what is a good result in Paisley?

Hearts were beaten on penalties in the League Cup in August by the eventual champions, they were lucky to escape with a draw in October.

It's been said before that this Hearts team are better as underdogs but this was a mountain too tough to scale.

It became obvious as the second-half wore on that McInnes and his side were being pragmatic.

While confidence may have been taken from the game at Tynecastle, when Beni Baningime was sent off after 15 minutes and Hearts still won, a draw was clearly the desired outcome - and they almost managed it.

The visitors looked tired throughout. Perhaps the minutes played with 10 instead of 11 have finally caught up with them.

As for St Mirren, Freckleton's goal was met with both euphoria and relief.

As the clock ticked on, all those stats about their goalscoring struggles started to chip away.

They've only scored 18 goals this season - the worst record in the league. They've failed to score in 18 of their 24 of their first-halves in the Premiership this season.

On average, they have just 3.5 shots on target per game and just 12 shots in total. They surpassed both of those targets early in the second half.

Schwolow made four fine saves in the Hearts goal, one of them miraculous. It started to feel like another decent performance that wouldn't get the points it deserved.

But then the goal came, and it was merited. The first-half performance in particular was outstanding. The red card came from continued pressure from the front line.

Throughout the team, there was aggression, there was a fight for every second ball. It was the St Mirren of old, the side that has finished in the top half for the past three seasons.

It must confound Robinson that this side has gone missing since the cup win. A hangover? Perhaps. On this evidence, they've finally found the cure.

St Mirren's Stephen Robinson: "We thoroughly deserved the win. We started really brightly, our pressing was back to what it was.

"It was important we continued to be patient, play balls in behind. The subs were very good when they came on and eventually we got our just rewards.

"That's us four unbeaten now. There's light at the end of the tunnel.

"The boys have massively overachieved but haven't forgotten what the basics are. We need to try to stay in the division and the result helps us."

Hearts' Derek McInnes: "You've got to work that bit harder to try and give the lads a chance to stay in the game. We almost did it. The fact that we've been down to 10 and got winning performances previously meant they knew what needed to be done.

"No one could have denied, because of the effort we put in, that we could have earned a point tonight. But we came here to win and we gave up that opportunity to win on the back of not playing forward.

"We got to the top of the league of being that team [that played forward] and tonight we were guilty of not doing that in the early part of the game. We needed more runs from the forward line and more passes into space, to make them think twice."

St Mirren travel to Airdrieonians on Friday night in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup, live on BBC Scotland (19:45 KO). Hearts are back in league action in a week's time in the Edinburgh derby (20:00) at Tynecastle.