Neither team looked happy when they made their way off the McDiarmid Park pitch.
And the same was true for both sets of supporters as they headed for the exits.
A late Adama Sidibeh goal wasn’t enough to keep St Johnstone’s fate in their control but it was enough to deny Ross County Premiership safety with a game to spare.
Courier Sport picks out four talking points as the battle to avoid the play-offs goes down to the last day.
It should be over
Ross County were the better team.
Actually, broaden that out, Ross County are the better team.
They’re far more reliable than Saints in front of goal, albeit equally erratic at the back, and they deserved to win Wednesday night’s match.
But Don Cowie made a mess of his substitutions.
Yan Dhanda, George Harmon and Simon Murray were County’s most dangerous attacking players and all were taken off before the 80th minute.
Cowie will be kicking himself – and so will his players for not putting the game to bed.
The Saints start wasn’t Livingston-esque but it was decent and Stevie May should have scored.
From the moment they fell behind, though, three points were effectively out of their reach.
There hasn’t been a comeback win all season.
The last one was December, 2022 – in Dingwall against County’s 10 men.
If Saints are to have any hope of beating Motherwell they simply have to score first.
The evidence is overwhelming.
A good result for Raith or Partick
The last time Saints were in the play-offs the fatigue factor was very much weighted in their favour.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle had to negotiate two, draining home and away battles – the last of which went all the way to penalties – while Callum Davidson was able to rest the likes of Melker Hallberg and Callum Hendry in their dead rubber against Hibs.
If Saints are in the play-offs again, it will be very different this time around.
Raith will undoubtedly be fresher, while Partick’s schedule isn’t any more testing than their own.
On Sunday, Craig Levein is faced with his trickiest team selection yet.
He has to balance going for a win, while making sure that key older players like Graham Carey, Nicky Clark and Ryan McGowan, and comeback men like Drey Wright and Cammy MacPherson, aren’t over-played.
Ian Murray and Kris Doolan would have been delighted to see Sidibeh score that injury-time equaliser.
Phillips’ form
Dan Phillips has been substituted in four of his last five games.
In the previous 10, he completed the full 90-plus minutes.
That in itself tells you he isn’t the same player who was one of the first names on Craig Levein’s team sheet and a regular man of the match contender, week after week.
You could maybe also even read something into the fact that he’s on his longest run without picking up a booking – seven matches.
Phillips is out of form.
County’s goal didn’t make for comfortable viewing.
No central defender wants to see space like that open up for a player of Yan Dhanda’s quality.
There was either a breakdown in communication or Phillips was at fault.
The fact he’s been playing with painkillers of late could well be part of the story but, whatever the reason, Saints’ back four didn’t get the protection it needed.
With Sven Sprangler still out, Levein isn’t blessed with CDM options.
Does he persist with Phillips and hope that the Trinidad and Tobago international plays his way back into form?
Does he put David Keltjens into midfield if Tony Gallacher is fit to return at Fir Park?
Or does he ask Ryan McGowan to do a job there, as Callum Davidson and Steven MacLean used to?
Last day storylines
There are no shortage of sub-plots for the final weekend.
Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell used to be in charge of Ross County and has the likes of Blair Spittal in his team who could do his old club a favour.
Saints fans have long looked at this fixture and contemplated the possibility of McDiarmid Park flop turned Fir Park talisman, Theo Bair, consigning them to the play-offs.
And, as older supporters recall, it’s 30 years since Paul Sturrock’s team were relegated at Motherwell on the last day of the season despite winning 1-0.
Finding a headline won’t be hard on Sunday evening, whichever way this plays out.
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