An injury-time winner from Peter Canero gave Kilmarnock victory over St Johnstone at a windy McDiarmid Park.

John Paul McBride had missed a great opportunity to give Saints the lead when he missed a penalty on 58 minutes.

And the home side were punished when Craig Dargo blasted the visitors in front 12 minutes later.

St Johnstone fought back and were rewarded three minutes from the end when Paddy Connolly equalised after Jim Weir's header had been cleared off the line.

But in a dramatic turnaround Canero popped up to give the visitors a valuable three points.

In the fifth minute Gary Holt nearly found Dargo with a cross from the right, and minutes later he had an effort from the edge of the box which went wide of the post.

The home side took some time to put Kilmarnock under any pressure, but a Momo Sylla corner in the 15th minute had goalkeeper Gordon Marshall struggling to gauge the flight of the ball before he gathered at the second attempt.

In the 20th minute Holt caused some panic in the Saints box when he just failed to connect with a Dargo cross from the right.

Saints' penalty resulted when Connolly was brought down in the box by Marshall.

But McBride sent the ball wide off Marshall's left-hand post for what was his team's third consecutive missed penalty.

Kilmarnock's first goal followed an Alan McLaren corner. The ball was headed towards goal by Kevin McGowne, and after several ricochets it fell nicely to Dargo who blasted in from close range.

The hosts were stunned but battled desperately to get the equaliser and were rewarded three minutes from time following a Gary Bollan corner from the right.

The ball was headed towards goal by Weir but was blocked on the line- and when it fell to Connolly 10 yards from goal he smashed it back through a ruck of players and into the net.

Just when the game looked to be heading for a draw, though, Canero ran on to a through ball to clip the winner between Alan Main's legs.