This was the sort of late twist that strips away all the nice talk and leaves only the uncomfortable truth. Motherwell had the lead, Motherwell had the game under control for long stretches, and Motherwell still ended up surrendering two points because Josh Campbell rose unchallenged in a crowded penalty box and headed home Logan Chalmers' cross in stoppage time. That is not bad luck. That is a habit becoming a problem.
St Johnstone will take the point, of course, because a 2-2 draw away from home after falling behind in the second half is the kind of result that can still carry value. But the bigger story belongs to Motherwell, whose fragile run of form has now stretched to one win in 12 games. They arrived having lost on Sunday to Hearts, and they left with another reminder that matches can escape when focus drains at the worst possible moment.
Motherwell keep finding new ways to make life harder
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. Motherwell had already been on a six-match losing streak before this draw, and the result does not suddenly make that disappear. Alfred Johansson had said his side needed to improve in both boxes rather than change, and this game offered a fairly blunt answer to that challenge. They were not punished because they lacked possession or courage. They were punished because they did not defend the key moments well enough.
There was at least some early edge in the contest. Taylor Steven gave St Johnstone the opener in the 19th minute, and Motherwell were forced to respond rather than settle into the afternoon they would have preferred. They did find a way back into it after the break, with Tawanda Maswanhise putting them ahead in the second half. For a while, that should have been enough. It was not.
Then came the final blow. Campbell's stoppage-time equaliser was not a thunderbolt from nowhere. It was the product of poor box control, the sort of lapse that turns a decent away performance into a deeply frustrating one. St Johnstone did what they had to do, kept pushing, and were rewarded when the game opened itself up just enough to punish Motherwell's concentration. The second goal of the season for Campbell mattered because it arrived at the exact moment Motherwell could least afford it.
There is no point pretending this is merely a run of unfortunate margins. One win in 12 games is the kind of record that starts to shape a club's mood, and Motherwell now have to carry that weight into their next fixture. The worst losing run since 2003 was already a damaging label. This draw ends the losing streak, but it does not end the problem. If anything, it confirms it: Motherwell are still searching for the control, steel and concentration required to close games out. Until that changes, the late collapse will keep feeling inevitable.
