St Johnstone 2-1 Motherwell: Taylor Steven and Bozo Mikulic strike late on as St Johnstone earn crucial win

St Johnstone grabbed a survival lifeline after scoring twice late on to snatch a 2-1 win over Motherwell.

Motherwell looked set to gain revenge for last week’s Scottish Cup defeat after taking a fourth-minute lead through Andy Halliday’s penalty.

But the rock-bottom Saints turned the match on its head in a dramatic finale, substitute Taylor Steven levelling in the 86th minute before Bozo Mikulic struck the winner two minutes later.

The result leaves Saints seven points behind second-bottom Kilmarnock, who were beaten 3-2 at Hearts.

What the managers said…

St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari: “Everyone can see the fight is there. What they did tells me everything about them, the team is very together.

“That is the only way we will give ourselves a chance to survive, everyone has to stick together.

“There is a lot of talk about momentum in football, when you have it the ball starts bouncing for you and things start dropping for you. But you have to do all the right things for that to happen.

“We have never been able to use the positive moments to build momentum so far this season.

“So to come back and win it the way we did, it could be very significant.

“It wasn’t luck, it was down to the boys pushing and pushing, scoring a goal and then going for another one.”

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell: “We completely switched off; don’t stand strong in our own penalty box.

“Ultimately, for me, that’s where we need to ask the question about that mental strength, that mental capacity to be able to stand strong.

“I didn’t think we’d done well in the second half. Once you start to drop off, you start to concede that pressure, you start to concede territory.

“You have to show a far better determination to defend your penalty box. We simply didn’t have that – and that’s the end result.”

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