St Andrews United: Boss Robbie Raeside not overly disappointed despite conceding equaliser at Heriot-Watt with just two minutes remaining

And it could have been even better for Robbie Raeside’s second-placed side, who were without the injured Graham Hay and the suspended Reece Redpath, as they led for most of the second half thanks to Jordan Mackenzie’s fine 59th-minute strike into the top right-hand corner of Alex McMahon’s net after good set-up play by Scott Reekie and Carter Kelly.

But United were denied the full three points by their now fourth-placed hosts when – after the ball had been played into a crowded penalty area – substitute Aaron Gamble stabbed it past visiting keeper Calum Brodie with just two minutes remaining. Saints survived the subsequent four minutes of stoppage time at the end of the match to pick up a valuable point.

"Losing a goal so late should have been a sore one for us,” gaffer Raeside told the Herald and Citizen. “But it didn’t feel like that because going into the game we were really down to the bare bones.

"We were missing our top scorer, we were missing our most experienced player and we had a very young bench.

"So I would say that if you’d offered me a point beforehand at this stage of the season, I’d have taken it because Heriot-Watt are probably the best footballing team in the league.

"I was really pleased with our performance. We really went toe to toe with them.

"If I’m honest, a draw was probably a fair result.

"Although obviously you want to win and the players were disappointed. But I wasn’t overly disappointed.

"We’ve won three games in the last minute this season so it’s swings and roundabouts.

"It keeps us 10 points ahead of Heriot-Watt so a draw was a better result for us than them. Given the injuries and suspensions we had it was a fantastic point.

"Winning 17 and drawing three of our last 20 league fixtures is a fantastic run of results and hopefully we can keep it going on Saturday.”

Saints, second with 65 points from 27 matches, look a very good bet for promotion due to that aforementioned 10-point buffer between them and fourth spot.

"Realistically, because everybody’s got to play everybody else at the top, I think one win would be enough to get us promotion,” Raeside said.

United’s next fixture is a King Cup fourth round tie at Newtongrange Star this Saturday, kick-off 2.30pm.

Raeside added: “We won’t be resting any players for that. We want to go and win every game.

"We will be putting our strongest team out and trying to get into a semi-final, which would be played the following midweek.

"So it’s a busy run but one we want to be involved in and keep the run going.”

Meanwhile, St Andrews United's Under 20s lost 5-1 at Jeanfield Swifts on Friday evening.

Thomas McLanaghan scored the consolation goal for the young Saints.