A stoppage-time goal from Josh Campbell rescued a point for St Johnstone and denied Motherwell a first Scottish Premiership victory in seven games.

Motherwell, on a run of six straight defeats, dominated the opening exchanges only to be caught out with the home side's first meaningful attack.

Josh Fowler was denied by a good save from Alex Paulsen, but the Perth side kept the ball alive and Taylor Steven, having failed to connect with his first effort, smashed his second into the back of the net from close range.

Ibrahim Said saw his long-range effort tipped onto a post by Steward, but shortly after the Nigerian shrugged off a couple of defenders and fired a home powerful effort to draw the visitors level.

And they took the lead after the break when the St Johnstone defence failed to deal with a long ball and Tawanda Maswanhise had all the time in the world to pick his spot and make it 2-1.

That looked like being enough as St Johnstone largely failed to trouble the visitors' defence, but in the final act they were undone as Campbell met a cross with a bullet header to snatch a point.

Simo Valakari will be disappointed that his side spent so much of the game having the play dictated to them on their own patch but will be thrilled at the character his side showed to dig out a point.

Grabbing the opening goal against the run of play should have provided a springboard, and yet much of their play was just a little lacking in imagination.

They largely failed to put what has been a vulnerable Motherwell defence under enough serious pressure.

It is hard to argue St Johnstone were good value for their point, but they kept going until the last and they got their reward.

After bossing the game early on, only then to concede from St Johnstone's first foray into the final third, manager Alfred Johansson must have feared yet another league defeat was in the offing.

It is to his side's great credit that they were undeterred, got themselves level and then pushed on to get themselves in front.

Ibrahim Said was a whirlwind of activity, popping up in the full-back position to break up St Johnstone attacks, driving forward with the ball from midfield and posing a threat. He was everywhere and he took his goal splendidly well.

It really should have been Motherwell's first win since early September after Maswanhise put them 2-1 up, and Johansson will be sickened that his side could not negotiate that final St Johnstone attack to emerge with what would have been a huge win for him and his team.

St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari: "First of all, I have to say I think it was a very good football match. There were two good footballing teams who tried to play with the ball, so I enjoyed that part of the game.

"Our late goal is so important, we've been talking about the small margins in this league. It's important if you are losing that you stay in the game and you will get your chance. I think we deserved that point.

"I think it tells me more about the character and personality of our players and how they want to push, they want to compete and they never gave up today."

Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson: "It's an extremely sore end to the game. Obviously, it's very, very tough given the fact that I think we played quite a good game and probably should have scored more than two. To finish it off like that is very tough, it feels like the story of our performances recently.

"I think at some point this group of players are going to get rewarded. We just need to learn from this. In the first half we create chances that we don't capitalise on and they score which at that time is difficult. It's very, very painful at the end.

"I think we deserved more today but once again I'd say we need to grow up and learn how to deal with these situations."