St Mirren manager Oran Kearney has said that hard-earned draws in consecutive games away from home can give his side a boost in the battle against the drop.

The Paisley side drew 1-1 against Hearts on Saturday, following a 2-2 draw with Aberdeen at Pittodrie to keep their hopes of avoiding relegation alive.

Kearney made wholesale changes to his squad in January in the hopes of reversing form and he believes that strong performances away from home against top sides could only help the group develop together.

"I would have probably have taken one win and one defeat because we would be a point better off," Kearney said. "But for the group, the two performances are as important as the two points.

"Carrying the consistency through from last week, we are very happy with that.

"A little bit of finishing in the first half probably let us down from maybe being in the position to grab all three.

"You are hoping that is a real catalyst and brings the group tighter together. It is so important that we keep building. The building block laid last week, we have managed to build on it this week and it is just so important that we do the same next week."

Hearts boss Craig levein was less positive after sharing the spoils, admitting his frustration at not winning on home soil.

"We didn't start the game particularly well and brought pressure on ourselves," he said. "We didn't pass the ball quickly or accurate enough.

"St Mirren came to do what they came to do. They did it to Aberdeen last week and they did it to us today so all credit to them.

"But when a team does defend a little bit deeper and you have a lot of the ball in front of them, the ball needs to move quickly and it didn't move quickly enough today. And also it wasn't accurate enough.

"Alongside that we had players who didn't play well."