91Èȱ¬

St Mirren manager Danny Lennon praised Jamie Hamill's stunning strike that denied his men victory in the 1-1 draw with Hearts.

Hamill rattled a second-half 20-yard shot past Marian Kello to cancel out Steven Thompson's third-minute opener.

"We had three opportunities to clear the ball before the wonder strike," Lennon told 91Èȱ¬ Scotland.

"It's a great goal from their point of view, but from our point of view we could have defended it better."

It looked certain to be a fifth straight defeat for the Jambos after Danny Grainger's corner cause havoc in the penalty area and Thompson made them pay as he stretched to knock the loose ball past Jamie MacDonald.

Buddies boss Lennon felt his side should have gone on to have the three points wrapped up before half-time.

He said: "It's a game we really should have seen out of sight in the first half. It doesn't happen that way and we tried to regroup at half-time and pre-warned the players.

"We could easily have lost in the very last seconds of the game and it's a fantastic save by Marian Kello. At that stage of the game we should never have been in that position.

"I thought today at times we made a lot of poor decisions on the ball and that was very uncharacteristic of us.

"It's another point on the board for us but I certainly believe it's two very important ones dropped."

Lennon also revealed he is hopeful goalkeeper Kello will stay at St Mirren Park until at least the end of the season, with talks having already started with the Slovakian international.

"Negotiations have been very positive," revealed Lennon. "He's a player that certainly adds quality and confidence - not only to the back four but throughout the team.

"He's a player that we'll do everything that we possibly can to make him stay here at least to the end of the season, if not beyond that."