10-man St Mirren had to settle for a share of the spoils as Motherwell fought back from 2-0 to claim a point at Fir Park.
Goals from Caolan Boyd-Munce and Killian Phillips had the Buddies two ahead in the first-half. But a double from Callum Slattery saw the Steelmen draw level before Toyosi Olusanya was given his marching orders for what the referee had deemed a second bookable offence.
Alex Iacovitti made his first start since January following a hamstring injury. He replaced Richard Taylor who dropped to the bench. Jonah Ayunga also returned after an ankle knock had ruled him out of our last match against Celtic. The forward came in for the injured Mikael Mandron who is set for four weeks on the sidelines.
A fast start to the match saw Motherwell passed up a glorious opportunity to open the scoring a little over 60 seconds from kick-off. Alex Gogic tripped and that allowed Tom Sparrow to race through on goal, but the forward lifted his effort over both Zach Hemming and the bar.
Saints responded well and missed their own opportunity to strike first five minutes later. Ayunga slipped Ryan Alebiosu in down the right-hand side and the wing-back charged into the area. He had options in the middle but elected to go alone, firing high and wide from the angle.
The Buddies took the lead on 23 minutes when Boyd-Munce's deflected effort wrong-footed Ellery Balcombe and found the net. Olusanya broke through but was quickly crowded out as he looked to get a shot away. He turned away from the area and laid it off to Boyd-Munce whose strike from 20 yards took a wild deflection before nestling in the corner of the net. There was a VAR check for a potential offside on Olusanya but it showed the striker had held his line and the goal stood.
The Buddies were well in control and extended the lead further 10 minutes later following a wonderful strike from Phillips. A cross from the left found the Irishman who took the ball down on his chest before sending an acrobatic strike beyond Balcombe from 15 yards to make it 2-0.
But the home side hit back almost instantly with Slattery pulling a goal back straight from kick-off. The midfielder took the ball down well before finishing with the outside of his boot from the edge of the area.
Saints came agonisingly close to regaining the two goal advantage when Balcombe failed to gather a corner and that allowed Gogic to get his head on it only for the effort to drift inches by the post.
Lennon Miller almost restored parity as the game headed into the first of three added minutes at the end of the half. Dom Thompson's ball across found the midfielder who took a touch before lashing high and wide.
Olusanya was presented with an opportunity early after the restart when Casey didn't get enough on his header and gave it straight to the Saints forward. Olusanya drove forward but sent his strike high and wide.
There was real concern in the second-half for Boyd-Munce after a collision saw the Northern Irishman have to be stretchered off following a lengthy delay where he received treatment from the St Mirren medical team. The manager confirmed afterwards that the midfielder received a concussion.
Motherwell drew themselves level when Slattery's low deflected effort from 20 yards snuck beyond Hemming with 20 minutes of normal time remaining.
Olusanya was sent off on 85 minutes after being shown a second yellow card after colliding with Casey. It was a highly contentious decision with the forward bemused about the decision that looked nothing more than a natural coming together between two players.
That meant Saints would have to see the remainder of the match out with a man disadvantage, and with 14 minutes of time added on, that looked like it would be no easy feat. But in truth it was Stephen Robinson's men who looked the most likely to grab a winner - Gogic coming so close to winning it in the 101st minute when he rose highest to meet a Scott Tanser corner but headed over as we had to accept just a point at Fir Park.
The Buddies head into the international break sitting in eighth place on 35 points - four points behind sixth place Hearts with matches against Kilmarnock, Dundee and Ross County to come before the split.
Full-Time: Motherwell 2-2 St Mirren
St Mirren: Hemming, Fraser, Gogic, Iacovitti (Taylor 68), Alebiosu, Phillips (Kiltie 82), Boyd-Munce (Smyth 68), O'Hara (c), John (Tanser 90), Olusanya, Ayunga (Idowu 82, Oseni 90)
Subs Not Used: Urminsky, Bwomono, Scott
Motherwell: Balcombe, O'Donnell, Gordon (Balmer 76), Casey, Sparrow, Slattery (Zdravkovski 90), Andrews (Paton 58), Halliday (Ebiye 90), Thompson, Miller, Plange (Watt 57)
Subs Not Used: Oxborough, Koutroumbis, Wilson, Dickson
Referee: Grant Irvine
Assistant Referee: Chris Rae
Assistant Referee: Steven Traynor
Fourth Official: Ryan Lee
VAR: Greg Aitken
