Hibernian missed the chance to move up to fifth in the William Hill Premiership as they struggled to dismantle 10-man St Johnstone to a 1-1 draw.
The home side played more than 50 minutes in the 10 minutes following Jason Holt’s first-half red card.
Simo Balacary’s men, who have been plagued by defensive deficiencies all season, looked resolute in difficult situations. Dwight Gayle, who was introduced that day, canceled out Nicky Clark’s penalty kick as the equalizer 11 minutes after the end.
Defeats by Motherwell and St Mirren paved the way for David Gray’s side to move into the top six. But they were unable to find a winner and extend their winning run to five games in front of 3,000 traveling fans.
In-form striker Makenzie Kirk missed out through injury in one of St Johnstone’s four substitutions, while Hibs captain Joe Newell, who left with a groin problem against Kilmarnock, was replaced by Hyuk-Kyu Kwon.
Saints played their best football for weeks but first-half chances fell to a striker lacking confidence.
Adama Sidibeh dragged his shot wide after Clark neatly copied Drey Wright’s diagonal ball.
Gambia, who had not scored a goal since August, hit the post in the 18th minute, but hit Jordan Smith directly.
Junior Hoilett overtook Jack Sanders to replace Chris Cadden as Hibs enjoyed dominance.
Sanders recovered to block the wing-back’s low drive on the line.
Five minutes before half-time, Holt was initially shown a yellow card for a foul on Chris Cadden.
VAR Grant Irvine advised Lloyd Wilson to take another look and the result was upgraded to red.
The home side responded well, putting the pressure on for a while, taking the lead until stoppage time.
Sanders was wrestled to the turf by Rocky Bushiri as he attempted to connect on Fran Franczak’s corner kick.
Clark was typically cool and clinical and sent Smith the wrong way from the penalty spot for his sixth goal of the season.
Josh Rae saved well from Nicky Cadden in the 50th minute and set the tone for Saints to be under pressure for the remainder of the minute.
Hibs had the ball in the net through Martin Boyle’s tap-in, but Hoilett’s offside flag brought the celebrations to an abrupt halt.
Balacary sacrificed Sidibe after 67 minutes, leaving Benji Kimpioca as the only Saints attacker.
Wright’s transformation into an extra centre-back worked as the visitors were initially restricted to long-range efforts from Chris Cadden and Nectarios Triantis that cleared Rae’s crossbar.
In the 79th minute, the veteran striker’s instincts shone.
Sven Sprangler headed the ball just over the Saints defense as far as Triantis, who nodded it over and Gayle stole in to poke home from eight yards.
Rae made a great save for Triantis and Josh Campbell’s header clipped the top of the crossbar as the Perth team pushed for a point.
