Alex Gogic's second-half header ensured Saints' name in the hat for the Fifth Round of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup.
Stephen Robinson's men dominated the proceedings but missed a number of opportunities before Cypriot defender Gogic nodded home from a corner to secure our place in the draw.
Hyeokkyu Kwon made his Saints debut after joining on loan from Celtic last week. Elvis Bwomono also came in for his first start, while Conor McMenamin returned to the starting line-up after missing the Celtic game prior to the winter break. St Mirren Youth Academy players Evan Mooney, Callum Penman and Ethan Sutherland were given places on the bench.
The Buddies started brightly and the visitors had goalkeeper Harry Stone to thank for denying Saints an early lead with the stopper making a terrific save to claw a header over the bar on 12 minutes.
Saints thought they had the lead on 19 minutes when Greg Kiltie had the ball in the net. Jonah Ayunga's initial strike was saved by Stone but Kiltie was on hand to roll into the empty net only for the linesman's offside flag to deny the forward on his 99th St Mirren appearance.
The Buddies still had to be wary of Queen of the South's threat on the counter and when ex-Saints Academy graduate Kyle Doherty did well to hold off Alex Gogic, he managed to slide in Lewis Gibson who looked poised to fire the visitors in front only for stand-in captain Marcus Fraser to make a brilliant block.
Kiltie came close to putting Saints ahead with a strike from 20 yards that flew by the post just before the half hour mark.
Bwomono was denied a goal on his first start when his powerful strike was cleared off the line by Efe Ambrose four minutes after the restart. Four minutes after that Tanser looked like he was about to give us the lead with a sweetly struck volley from the edge of the box. The left-wing-back caught it perfectly and it appeared to be flying into the top corner off the net, but it came crashing off the cross bar.
Stephen Robinson made his first change just after the hour mark with Lewis Jamieson introduced in place of McMenamin. The 21-year-old sent in a good cross on 67 minutes which met the head of Kiltie, but the forward was leaning back and sent the header over.
The breakthrough finally came with less than 20 minutes remaining. Kiltie's corner was perfect as it met the head of Gogic who bulleted home to break the deadlock.
Unlucky Kiltie was foiled by the offside flag once again when he smashed home on 77 minutes.
Substitute Mikael Mandron should have made it two with three minutes of normal time remaining but he fired his header from Boyd-Munce's corner over the bar. Thankfully, one would be enough as Saints put their name in the hat for the Fifth Round draw.
Full-Time: St Mirren 1-0 Queen of the South
St Mirren: Hemming, Fraser, Bolton, Gogic, Bwomono, Boyd-Munce, Kwon, Tanser, McMenamin (Jamieson 62), Ayunga (Mandron 71), Kiltie
Subs Not Used: Urminsky, Dunne, Flynn, Sutherland, Mooney, Penman, Nahmani
Queen of the South: Stone, McKay (c), Todd (Hutchinson 76), Connelly, McCelland, Ferguson, Ferguson, Logan, Ambrose, Doherty (McGuffie 88), Gibson (Walker 88), Brydon (McKechnie 46)
Subs Not Used: Botterill, Macintyre, Irving, Ross, Johnstone
Referee: Nick Walsh
Assistant Referee: David Roome
Assistant Referee: Paul O'Neill
Attendance: 3,425
