Head coach Grant Sweenie had been disappointed in his team’s second-half performance in last week’s win over Clydesdale and warned them he would not stand for a repeat this time out.
And his players heeded the message, stepping up the pace after the break to put Phoenix to the sword, but just falling short of securing a fourth try which would have been worth a bonus point.
A superb driving maul off a line-out saw the home side make 50-odd yards early in the first half. Skipper Al Brodie called for the same move from a line-out just 10 yards from the try-line and Stef Lach dived over the lien for what appeared to be a perfectly good score.
But the referee judged it to have been held up, much to the annoyance of the large home support and Lach himself.
But soon after the Buddies did get the scoring underway when prop Scott Sutherland broke the gain lien and fended off two tackles to score.
Euan Stuart nailed the conversion and added two penalties before the break.
In the second period, Mike Somerville finished off a neat move to get Paisley’s second try and again Stuart converted.
And the third try also came from the forwards as flanker Kevin Browne capped a man-of-the-match performance with a score wide on the right after some patient build-up play.
Stuart converted and later added a third penalty to wrap up the win.
Browne said: “We played well and were robbed of the bonus point by a decision that was very hard to take.
“But we were professional in how we handled that disallowed try and went on to do the damage anyway.”
Paisley host Millbrae on Saturday, with a 2pm kick-off.

PAISLEY: McLeod, Somerville, S Sutherland, Lach, Brodie (c), Browne, M Sutherland, McKinnon, Gibson, McKellar, Powrie, Knott, Nissen, McKay, Stuart. SUBS: Dodd, P Di Duca, M Di Duca, Glover, Murney.