St Mirren head into next Sunday's Premier Sports Cup final against Celtic on a high after they ended their eight-game Scottish Premiership winless run with victory over Dundee United.

Conor McMenamin's first-half bullet header and Keeanu Baccus' first goal since returning to the club was enough for Stephen Robinson's side to earn their first league win since 27 September.

With both sides coming into the game in such poor form, expectations were low, but the Buddies, who will compete in their first League Cup final since winning the competition in 2013, seemed certain to make the trip to Hampden with a win in the bag.

Declan John, who threatened to be sidelined with a hamstring injury sustained against Dundee last weekend, lofted a cracking cross to the back post for Northern Ireland international McMenanim to nod home.

It was nothing less than their bright start merited, and though they allowed United to creep back into the game, Australia international Baccus battered St Mirren into a two-goal lead with 25 minutes left and all-but resign United to a sixth league game without a win.

Visiting striker Zac Sapsford should have done better when through on goal in the first half, but tamely struck straight at the sprawling Shamal George, while he cannoned a free-kick off the crossbar just before St Mirren's second.

Craig Sibbald smacked the bar while substitute Amar Fatah was superbly denied by George, but Jim Goodwin's side left themselves too much to do.

The win lifts Robinson's League Cup finalists to ninth, two points behind United who remain eighth.

Robinson said pre-match it was "difficult to play down what is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some of the players" in relation to next Sunday's showpiece at the national stadium.

He also stressed while he wanted to take a performance to Hampden, he'd much rather have a positive result in tow. He will certainly take that.

St Mirren couldn't have been much more comfortable in the first half, and they didn't even need to be fabulous in their play to enjoy such a luxury.

Alex Gogic was outstanding in midfield alongside Killian Phillips, which perhaps leaves Robinson with a conundrum as to where the Cyprus international should be deployed against Wilfred Nancy's side.

That's a headache Robinson can enjoy battling with this week, though. His opposite number will perhaps be scratching his head for a few of the wrong reasons.

United set-up in a defensive 5-3-2 shape in Paisley, and it didn't pay off.

Slow and second best in the first half, things certainly improved with the introduction of Fatah, who was arguably unfortunate to drop out of the starting line-up after his showing against Rangers midweek.

From their perspective, it’ll be another two soft goals conceded as their records reads just one win in 10.

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: "It's a relief, there's no other way to put it. I'll enjoy it for 24 hours and then worry about the next game.

"We haven't won in a while, so there was a bit of apprehension coming into the game. We always say, If you keep clean sheets, then you'll win games.

"We stayed compact and solid. We know we need to play better than that. There wasn't much between the two teams, but we scored in good moments.

"I wish the win came a bit sooner, but we've now earned the right to enjoy this week. We'll train hard and we'll go and watch Celtic a couple of times this week. The players have chosen not to wear suits for the final and don't want to go to hotels.

"The players want it to be as normal as possible, because they don't want any emotion involved in it. We're looking forward to it, we'll enjoy it afterwards if we get a result but we'll certainly enjoy the build-up."

Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin: "We're going through a really difficult period at the moment. The only way out of it is for us to stick together, keep working hard and hopefully we'll be able to come out the other side of it.

"I don't think that St Mirren were the better team today. I thought we had more dangerous attacks. In the last 10 minutes, we're committing that many bodies forward, and we got caught on the counter attack a couple of times.

"But Sapsford got that one one-on-one in the first half, then he hit the crossbar with a free-kick, Craig Sibbald hit the crossbar, Fatah had a good header, but in games like this, you need to be clinical, and today we weren't.

"St Mirren took the two chances that they had, took the three points that they deserved at the end of the day."

St Mirren face Celtic at Hampden in the Premier Sports Cup final on Sunday, 14 December (15:30 GMT).

United welcome Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership the day before at Tannadice (15:00).