Callum Hendry is fast turning into St Johnstone’s Premiership saviour.
The Perth striker produced one of the finest goals McDiarmid Park has ever witnessed to secure three priceless points for his team in injury time.
The left foot volley was as sweet – and timely – a hit as any Perth fan could ever wish to see.
The goal and the win takes Saints four points above Dundee in the Premiership table.
It was Hendry’s sixth since returning from Kilmarnock on loan and his second in this game.
Midway through the first half he cancelled out a Motherwell opener with an excellent front post header.
A match of this importance called for a fast start from the hosts but it didn’t get it.
Instead, Saints fell behind in the 12th minute.
Kevin van Veen was afforded far too much time to work himself into a position to shoot from around 25 yards out and his low effort found Zander Clark’s bottom right hand corner.
Putting together a few passes was proving to be problematic for Callum Davidson’s side but the first time they managed to do it, they got themselves an equaliser.
Melker Hallberg has shown himself to be a fine crosser of a ball in his short time in Perth and the Swede spotted Hendry’s near post run on 21 minutes.
Saints’ star man beat the Motherwell centre-backs to it and his header beat Liam Kelly.
The second half had as few chances as the first for the bulk of it and it took until the 79th minute for a near thing – substitute Kaiyne Woolery’s angled shot coming back off the post.
Then not long after, Jamie McCart headed a Hallberg corner over.
When Saints lost possession near the Motherwell box they were exposed by a swift counter-attack at the end of which Woolery was deservedly booked for diving.
Just as this match was looking like drifting out as a 1-1 draw, Hendry lashed that left foot volley past Kelly after once bounce from a long Jacob Butterfield pass for the most dramatic and high quality of winners.
Clark had a late free-kick save to make but Saints saw the game out after that for only their third home league win of the season.
