St. John’s got a lifeline of survival when they scored twice late on to give the Emperor a 2-1 win.
Mother, to avenge last week’s Scottish Cup defeat with a fourth-minute penalty.
But the rock-bottom Saints turned the tables on themselves in a dramatic finale, substitute Taylor Stevens equalizing in the 86th minute before Bozo Mikulic struck the winner.
The result leaves Saints seven points behind second bottom Kilmarnock, who they beat 3-2.
What leaders say…
St onstakar manager Simo Valakari. “Everyone can see that the fight is there. What they did to me is everything about them, the team is very close together.
“It’s the only way we’re going to give ourselves a chance to survive, everyone has to stick together.
“There’s a lot of talk about momentum in football, when you have it, the ball starts going high for you and things start dropping for you.
“We have never been able to use the positive moments to gain momentum this season.
“So to come back and win it like we did, it could be very important.
“It was no luck, he threw the boys down and pushed them, scoring a goal and then another.”
St. John’s Bozo Mikulic scores to make it 2-1
Mother boss Stuart Cattlewell“We are completely disconnected. Don’t stand in our penalty box.
“At the end of the day, it seems to me that we have to ask about that mental strength, that mental ability to stand strong.
“I didn’t think we did well in the second half. When you start to go away, you start to give up that pressure, you start to give up space.
“You have to show better determination to defend your penalty box. We just didn’t have that and that’s the bottom line.”
