St Johnstone 1 - 1 Dunfermline

ANY lingering hopes St Johnstone may have harboured of SPL football next term were washed up on a pitch with as much sand as the beach some players seem to have their minds on following a tame draw against Dunfermline yesterday.

Saints mixed defensive frailties with some glaring misses, none worse than Steven Milne's failure to convert Sheerin's neat lay-off from 10 yards, the bits in the middle orchestrated by the leggy on-loan Liam Craig were excellent.

Saints took the lead they deserved 10 minutes from the interval, a Sheerin free-kick wide on the right met by defender Allan McManus, below, who headed home in the face of some dubious defending.

As St Johnstone turned the screw Dunfermline's discipline, like the weather, deteriorated, Greg Shields and Scott Wilson both booked for clumsy challenges. Dunfermline's perseverance paid off though when Stevie Crawford chased down a Shields' long ball and slid the ball home from an acute angle.

It was a downbeat Saints boss Derek McInnes who said afterwards: "We've been here before and we need to put teams away but there was plenty to be pleased with apart from that."