Considering all the talk about Michael O’Halloran on Saturday, the game itself was almost incidental.
It was certainly a big call by Saints boss Tommy Wright to leave the Rangers transfer target out of his match-day squad altogether.
The manager obviously knows his players well and he felt it was the right thing to do but hopefully there is a conclusion to this saga sooner rather than later.
Whether that means O’Halloran will continue to be a St Johnstone player remains to be seen.
What is certain is that the player who was brought in to replace him on Saturday, young Craig Thomson, seized his chance with both hands.
He was a rare shining light in what was otherwise a drab draw.
Thomson seems blessed with similar electric pace to O’Halloran and was a constant thorn in the side of the Accies defence. He also has a tremendous work-rate as shown when he raced back to snuff out a potentially-dangerous Hamilton attack deep into stoppage time.
Thomson’s display was all the more admirable considering he produced it on a terrible McDiarmid surface.
Pitches all over the country have taken a pounding this winter but Saints’ is in a desperate state with the ball bobbling about all afternoon the groundsman really has his work cut out before the next home match against Aberdeen on February 6.
However, the St Johnstone players and management also have a lot to do with the Accies game being the fifth on the bounce where they have failed to win or even score a goal.