TWO teams hotly tipped to be battling it out at the wrong end of the table slugging out a stalemate – actually it wasn't as bad as it sounds. With both teams looking to get the ball down and play, this was far from dour, and while each side can rightly claim to have had decent enough chances to have pocketed the points, it will be Kilmarnock who will feel they were deserving of more.

Despite a bright opening spell from the home team it was Kilmarnock who controlled and dictated an increasingly one-sided opening period. Conor Sammon, who looks a real threat in the air, saw his header from a deep David Fernandez cross drop inches wide, and Mehdi Taouil rammed a drive into the chest of Mark Howard from 18 yards.

Saints, who at times were guilty of over-passing, only ever looked a threat when the ball was tossed up in the direction of Jim Hamilton or Antonio Tonet, and as such would have been glad to get in with the score sheet blank at the interval. Jim Jefferies will have felt aggrieved at not having made the breakthrough, especially as Sammon looked a cert to score seconds before the turnaround when he rounded Howard, only to be denied by a last ditch tackle from new Saints skipper, John Potter.

There second half was more of the same, although Hamilton came within inches of nabbing the opener with a thumping header off the bar soon after the restart. This scare aside, Killie were pretty quickly back in the driving seat with Taouil and Craig Bryson busy bossing figures in the centre of the park.

Gus MacPherson's men were to some extent at least culpable of making life even more difficult than it had to be with a flurry of misplaced and ill-advised passes combining with an almost infectious tendency to dwell in possession. However, try as they might, the visitors could not find a way past Howard who made three superb stops in quick succession to deny Bryson, Invincible and Sammon with little more than 15 minutes remaining.

When Howard was found wanting the woodwork spared his blushes as Taouil found to his cost when his lob rebounded back off the top of the bar following the keeper's flap at a cross he was never going to get. In a bid to add some more attacking oomph Saints threw on Dennis Wyness, and fit again Andy Dorman, but it was Hamilton who came closest with a trademark downward header. Alan Combe did well to get down and smother to ensure his team emerged with the point they more than deserved.