St Johnstone 1 Kilmarnock 2

St Johnstone's miserable run of form in the Scottish Premiership continued as they suffered a 2-1 defeat to Kilmarnock at McDiarmid Park. Murray Davidson had put the hosts in front with a controversial opener but two headers in the space of three first-half minutes from Josh Magennis gave the visitors victory. Magennis failed to convert several opportunities to make it a hat-trick but those missed chances were not punished by Tommy Wright's men, who have now lost five consecutive league matches.

It was St Johnstone who made the fastest start, forcing two early corners

before Brian Graham headed straight at goalkeeper Conor Brennan after a probing cross from Brian Easton. The home side opened the scoring in the 10th minute in contentious fashion. James McFadden, making his first start for the club, twisted into space down the left and chipped towards the back post. After a scramble for possession, Davidson struck low past Brennan from eight yards. Killie captain Manuel Pascali desperately attempted to clear from the goal-line, only for referee Craig Thomson to rule that the shot had already crossed the line, sparking furious protests from the visitors. The controversy enlivened Kilmarnock and they almost made an instant reply when Rory McKenzie's low shot was well dealt with by Saints goalkeeper Alan Mannus at his near post.

Shortly afterwards, a McKenzie corner was headed goal wards by

Pascali and scrambled away by the home defence. Just nine minutes after falling behind, Allan Johnston's team were level. Ross Barbour whipped in a cross from the right and Magennis' downward header bounced up and into the top corner beyond Mannus' despairing grasp.

In the 22nd minute, Kilmarnock struck again with a simple goal when McKenzie's near-post corner from the left found Magennis, who swooped in to head home from close range. Magennis should then have made it a hat-trick of first-half headers as the Scottish Cup holders failed to learn their lesson in dealing with set-pieces.

Another corner was knocked on by Mark Connolly and Magennis somehow nodded his attempt over the crossbar from just two yards out.

Having almost fallen further behind, St Johnstone were close to drawing level when impressive play from Graham saw the striker flick the ball over Connolly and fire a shot towards goal that Brennan did well to save with his legs. There was more debate involving Davidson just before half-time when he bundled another McFadden cross over the line at the far post after Graham had kept the ball alive, but referee Thomson whistled and booked him for handball just as the home fans were starting to celebrate an equaliser.

Kilmarnock almost netted in bizarre circumstances after the break. Barbour's free-kick from the halfway line missed everyone and appeared to be bouncing harmlessly to the goalkeeper, only for Mannus to misjudge the trajectory and watch with relief as the crossbar came to his rescue. Barbour was again involved moments later as his delivery from the right found Magennis, whose acrobatic effort was just off-target as he continued to search for his third goal. St Johnstone had been finding it difficult to create chances until substitute David Wotherspoon fired narrowly off-target after a weaving run. Simon Lappin then sent a rasping drive narrowly over the crossbar but Brennan was largely untroubled in the away goal throughout the second half. Any hopes of a home comeback were almost ended when Easton's disastrous back-pass gave Magennis an opening, but he failed to beat Mannus one-on-one.