Motherwell made the journey home from Perth satisfied with a point and happy that no injuries were sustained ahead of next week's Scottish Cup semi-final.
Some suggested that this was the first meaningless league fixture of the season and many more would hold that view after the final whistle. The contest never got going and it carried the air of a goalless encounter all afternoon.
Both managers were quick to refer to the condition of the playing surface in defence of the fare on offer to the 2,400 spectators but that failed to explain the lack of any competitive edge. With the sides in the relatively safe seventh and eighth positions a share of the spoils caused no damage.
The manager was delighted at the debut of Barry Maguire and even suggested that he had put himself in the frame for next week. The young legs felt cramp midway through the second half but by then they had delivered a fairly assured performance. He earned an encouraging response from the travelling fans when Rose replaced him.
Barry Maguire
Bigirimana and Grimshaw will be pleased to have played for the full 90 minutes and it was good to see Rose back after missing the last three games. Carson chalked up another clean sheet and in the evening received a well earned reward when he collected the Well Society and Players Player of the Year awards.
It might be that the most significant benefit of the afternoon could be the recovery time afforded to Campbell, Dunne and Ciftci. Cadden was protected too as he was benched for the first hour.
The post-split fixtures will be revealed soon but thoughts of the end of the league campaign will be parked as we concentrate on Saturday's Hampden meeting with Aberdeen.