It was a frustrating afternoon for St Johnstone, whose European hopes were dented by Motherwell.

Motherwell goalkeeper Andy Goram denied Kilmarnock last week and on the few occasions questions were asked of him against St Johnstone he had the answer.

Saints' Portuguese striker Miguel Simao was a constant menace to the visitors rearguard, but could not find a way past the final line of defence.

A first half block when Simao was put clean through was followed by a series of top class saves in the second half when Saints upped the pace in their efforts to break the deadlock.

Even when the former Scottish keeper was beaten, the crossbar denied the home side on three occasions - a terrific 25-yard shot from Paul Kane and two headers from man-of-the-match Darren Dods.

It was a strangely uninspired game made more difficult by a slippery pitch which was responsible for creating possibly the best chance of the game.

Just before half time, Saints defender Stuart McCluskey, who came on for injured skipper Jim Weir, slipped in an attempt to pass back to keeper Alan Main. Pat Nevin took advantage to round the keeper but his cutback was intercepted and the chance was lost.

All the goalkeeping heroics were not at one end. Main was brought into action in the first few seconds of the second half when he tipped over a 25-yard rising shot from Derek Adams then made sure that Saints got at least one point from a drab game when he made a terrific save from a close-in shot from Adams.

The most danger to Goram came from two deflective shots both from Simao, but on each occasion the ball went tantalisingly past the post.

Despite the fact that Motherwell were seen little in attack, Saints lost both central defenders to injury - Weir in the first half when he seemed to overstretch himself then Dods went off with just seconds left.

Only consolation for Saints was Kilmarnock's failure to beat Dundee United and they will have to raise their game for the visit to their Euro rivals next week.

Teams:

St Johnstone: Main, McQuillan, Weir (McCluskey 25), Dods, Bollan, Griffin (O'Halloran 70), Dasovic, Kane, McAnespie (Parker 74), O'Neil, Simao.

Subs Not Used: Connolly, Ferguson.

Booked: O'Neil.

Motherwell: Goram, Brannan, McGowan, Craigen, McMillan, Nevin (McCulloch 63), Matthaei, Valakari, Spencer, Adams,Goodman.

Subs Not Used: Woods, Gower, Nicholas, Thomas.

Booked: Adams.

Att: 4,599

Ref: J Mccluskey (Stewarton).