St Johnstone let two points slip against 10-man Motherwell.
Tommy Wright’s men went a goal in front early in the match through Murray Davidson and controlled the rest of the first half, aided by a red card midway through it for Louis Laing.
But a combination of the hosts raising their standard in the second period and Saints dropping there’s culminated in a John Sutton equaliser.
It only took nine minutes for an unchanged Saints team to expose Motherwell’s now familiar defensive frailties when they took the lead with as simple a goal as you could wish to see.
Davidson ran off his marker and Chris Kane fed the ball through to him, before the midfielder side-footed it low into the far corner.
Saints had a strong wind behind them in the first half, and from a Simon Lappin inswinging corner keeper Dan Twardzik misjudged the flight of the ball. Tam Scobbie arrived at the back post but couldn’t get a touch to it.
Moments later the visitors broke up a Motherwell attack in midfield and had a three-on-two on the counter. David Wotherspoon chose the right option in passing to Kane, but he over-hit it and the chance was gone.
Already a goal up, Saints were a man up on 25 minutes when Laing was ordered off for a foul on Kane at the corner of the box. It wouldn’t have been a tap-in, but the young striker would have had a clear run on goal if he hadn’t been impeded.
After the Motherwell protests to referee Willie Collum subsided, Wotherspoon narrowly missed the near post with a curling free-kick that had Twardzik beaten.
There wasn’t a lot of love for Mr Collum among the ‘Well fans but he did them a turn when he chose to ignore a pull by Anthony Straker on Lee Croft’s shirt that should have resulted in a penalty award.
The last chance of the first half fell to the goalscorer, Davidson. His shot from just inside the box was tipped round the near post by Twardzik.
The St Johnstone dominance continued after the break, and on 50 minutes a Steven MacLean glancing header from a Gary Miller cross was just wide.
Miller had work to do at the other end three minutes later when he cleared a Fraser Kerr header off the line with a header of his own.
Motherwell enjoyed their best spell of the match after the near-miss, and got their equaliser on 76 minutes.
Alan Mannus had no chance keeping out a fierce Sutton strike into the roof of the net.
Neither side came close to a winner, but there’s no doubt that Motherwell would be happier than Saints with their point.