Eight minutes left on the clock.

The ball is played into the area from the right by Shay Logan and a most inviting ball it is, too.

Cammy Smith, impressive since replacing Willo Flood at half-time, knows it. He has timed his run to get himself into space and dives to make solid contact with his head from around nine yards.

By the time he realises what has gone on, his effort has gone a matter of inches wide of the near post. The frustration is agonisingly evident.

Matches can be won and lost in such split-second moments. In Aberdeen's case, league championships are currently at stake within them, too, and such opportunities, particularly when you have become embroiled in a real battle against spirited opponents, have to be taken.

Derek McInnes' side had been given the runaround over the first 35 minutes or so of this most engaging encounter in Perth.

Their hosts, denied a 2-0 advantage by the woodwork at the start of the second period, were still alive and kicking as the game entered its closing stages, but Adam Rooney's 20th goal of the campaign had cancelled out Simon Lappin's opener and the pendulum had pretty much started to swing in the Reds' favour.

Of course, judged over the 90 minutes alone, a draw was a decent result for Aberdeen last night. St Johnstone had the better chances and could easily have won the match in stoppage time with Michael O'Halloran being denied by a double save from Scott Brown before Steven Maclean somehow failed to convert a drilled cross from O'Halloran from a yard or so out, allowing the ball to slide underneath his outstretched leg.

McInnes' men are, of course, still in there fighting for the Premiership, but Celtic remain top of the table on goal difference having played two fixtures less and dreams of a first league title for

30 years just look all the more unlikely to come to fruition.

McDiarmid Park may not be the graveyard of their ambitions, but it has been a harsh place to visit. Aberdeen failed to perform at all when losing 1-0 there in August and will surely have regrets over the way they opened this match against a St Johnstone side missing a number of established players through injury and suspension.

We were less than three minutes in when Chris Kane, making his first start since returning from a loan spell at Dumbarton, nipped the ball away from Andy Considine and forced Brown to race from his goal-line and show some real bravery in blocking his shot.

After Lappin had watched a swerving free-kick zip just the wrong side of Brown's right-hand post, Kane raced into space again and saw a low diagonal shot suffer the same fate.

Peter Pawlett was denied from close-range by the home goalkeeper, Alan Mannus, after a dreadful backpass in dangerous territory from Wotherspoon and David Goodwillie did see strong claims that Gary Miller had handled the ball in his own area ignored by the referee, Bobby Madden, but Aberdeen simply weren't at the races and went behind on the half-hour mark.

Gary Miller fired in a cross from the right that spun off the head of Considine and fell for Lappin around 11 yards out. He did not stand on ceremony, volleying the ball with his right foot and threatening to burst the net with his first goal since signing from Cardiff City on a free transfer at the beginning of the season.

Brown produced a double save from Wotherspoon and Lee Croft moments later and that finally seemed to wake his Aberdeen team-mates up. With three minutes of the first period remaining, a cross from Ryan Jack - given every incentive to perform well given the presence of the Scotland manager, Gordon Strachan, in the stand - was met by Considine at the back post. Mannus produced an instinctive block and stayed alert to save the follow-up effort from Goodwillie, who would see a header from a Niall McGinn cross come off the top of the crossbar a little later.

Thoughts of an Aberdeen comeback were almost extinguished two minutes after the restart, though. As the woodwork had denied them a little earlier, it was to keep them alive this time round. Kane played in Croft on the right of the area and his angled shot beat Brown before coming back off the base of the far upright.

He would pay for such profligacy. Aberdeen's equalising goal on 56 minutes started in the most unimaginative fashion and ended with something really quite spectacular. Mark Reynolds launched a long ball forward from defence that Goodwillie flicked on with his head.

Rooney watched the ball take a bounce and unleashed a right-footed howitzer from the best part of 25 yards that Mannus was unable to prevent from hitting the net despite getting a hand to the ball following a full-length dive to his left.

Goodwillie saw an overhead kick from a Smith cross land on the top of the net as Aberdeen turned the screw with 20 minutes to go and both Rooney and Lawrence Shankland saw efforts saved after Smith's big opening went abegging.

This unlikely title challenge is not over, by any means, but two draws in two games has given Celtic crucial leeway at an important point of the campaign.