St Kilda coach Grant Thomas called it "deja vu in reverse" as the Saints had a second AFL match this season at Aurora Stadium decided after the final siren - this time in their favour.

Back in round five it was the soft-siren debacle, when Fremantle was awarded the victory in the AFL boardroom days later.

This time, Port Adelaide's Daniel Motlop fluffed a simple set shot seconds after the siren to allow St Kilda to escape from a lacklustre match with an 8.16 (64) to 8.12 (60) win.

The Power had clawed back from a 26-point halftime deficit and were five points down when Motlop took a spectacular mark flying high over a pack in the dying seconds.

The siren sounded as he lined up the shot from 30 metres out on a slight angle with the chance to become a Port hero.

The anguished look on Motlop's face before he took the kick suggested he was more aware of the possibility he could be the villain, and so it proved.

His stabbed shot was clearly going to miss from the moment it left his boot, barely travelling far enough to register a behind.

Port coach Mark Williams said while Motlop was paid to kick goals and certainly should not have missed such a simple chance, it was unfair to be harsh on a player in such a situation.

"It's easy for all of us to sit there and analyse it, but unless you're actually in the position to understand what it's like ... over a long career you hardly ever get that opportunity to be in that spot," Williams said.

"Unfortunately for Daniel it's disappointing with the result, but if it happens again he'll learn from it.

"I talked to him about the fact that you need to relive the emotion of it and what you felt and how you went through it and look at the replay and just make sure that it never happens again."

Williams admitted it cost the Power virtually any hope of a finals berth.

Thomas was happy to fly home with the valuable four points, which lifted the Saints into the top four, but sorely disappointed that his side meekly let Port go so close to snatching victory.

"It starts with F and it's frustration and it's 'phew'," Thomas said of his sentiments as Motlop lined up.

"I just shook my head, I thought 'I can't believe this'.

"It was looking like another game where it was going to be a loss out of nothing.

"We would have looked back at that game and thought that's one we absolutely gave away."

It was the second time in two matches the Saints had escaped due to an opponent's shock miss late in the game, with Essendon's Jason Johnson the culprit in last Saturday's three-point result at the MCG.

While conceding his side's form was currently "B grade", Thomas said with players such as Justin Koschitzke, Xavier and Raphael Clarke, Aaron Hamill and Andrew Thompson to return from injury in the coming weeks an assault on the premiership was still realistic.

"We'll be a force to be reckoned with, there's no doubt about that, but we've got to build our form into having our best form at the end of the year," he said.

"We haven't clicked at all this year, last year we clicked for a period of time, the year before we clicked for a period of time, we haven't this year, so when we do hopefully it's at the right time."

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