A FOURTH successive league defeat for St Johnstone was perhaps the hardest to take for manager Tommy Wright as the other Saints snatched the points with substitute Adam Drury's late goal.

Wright claimed disallowed goals in each half should have stood, and was raging at the manner in which the game was lost.

By contrast, St Mirren have played much better than this and lost, so Tommy Craig was entitled to believe the gods are finally smiling on his young side. Both goals were extremely well taken, even if overall the home side had by far the best of the game's few chances.

"I'm delighted with the result," Craig said. "The winning goal came when we under a bit of pressure. We have had a horrible start to the season, but we can see a bit of daylight, even if we haven't turned the corner yet."

St Johnstone gave a second- half debut to James McFadden, but although he had a part to play in one of the contested disallowed goals, the best will come when he is fully match fit. His manager declared himself satisfied with his substitute, but not with the rest of the afternoon's proceedings.

"We totally dominated the second half," he poined out. "At worst we should have come away with a point but it's criminal at this level of football to give away two goals like that. I've spoken to the referee (about the two disallowed goals) but there's no point. They say it balances out over a season so I'm not using these decisions as an excuse."

With the teams cancelling each out, and conceding possession regularly, a half-time stalemate was an increasing probability when the visitors suddenly went ahead with a stunning strike, quite out of character with the mediocrity of all which had preceded it. Its origins were, however, entirely typical.

St Mirren left-back Sean Kelly, pushing well forward, dispossessed Michael O'Halloran and then dispatched a fast-moving low cutback which eluded everybody in the box and arrived at the feet of Jason Naismith, standing some 30 yards out. Without hesitating, the right-back sent a powerful shot past Alan Mannus to notch his first goal of the season.

The home side really should have been level two minutes later. Scott Brown sent O'Halloran clear with a clever through ball, and as he bore down on Marian Kello a goal seemed inevitable. Instead, the St Johnstone player scooped the ball over the bar.

Five minutes before half-time, with the game continuing to gather momentum, Wright's side had the ball in the net, but striker Brian Graham fouled Kello as they both went to meet Simon Lappin's cross and the flag went up at the same time as David Wotherspoon bundled the loose ball over the line.

O'Halloran, who had a miserable first half, gave way to McFadden at the start of the second. The new signing was given 45 minutes in a youth game in midweek, but his last outing at this level was at Pittodrie in May, when his former club Motherwell beat Aberdeen.

The 31-year-old could have marked his home debut with a goal, but took a poor touch just inside the box from Brian Graham's inviting pass. Some 10 minutes later his new side's growing frustration was put to rest when central defender Steven Anderson nodded home Brown's corner. Referee Don Robertson waved away Kello's protests.

St Johnstone thought, as did most of the crowd, that they had taken the lead when McFadden released Lappin and the wide midfielder's fine run and cross saw Graham strike the ball across Kello and into the net. It looked to be a textbook goal, but the flag went up for offside even although Wright later claimed the score should have stood.

Just when it looked as if the home side would take all three points, two St Mirren substitutes teamed up to seal the victory. Ross Caldwell slipped the ball through the home defence to Drury and the Manchester City loan signing finished with a the kind of aplomb missing in the previous 84 minutes.