A late penalty from Nadir Ciftci helped Dundee United overcome 10-man Partick Thistle 1-0 at Tannadice, to close the gap on Scottish Premiership leaders Hamilton. Ciftci struck from the penalty spot in the 83rd minute after he was brought down by Thistle’s captain, Daniel Seaborne, who was sent off for his last-man foul. Partick were the better team in the second half, but Ciftci’s spot-kick means Jackie McNamara’s side are now just one point behind Hamilton, despite not being at their best in this match.
Greg Tansey’s first-half penalty secured three points for Inverness in a 1-0 win at St Mirren. The match lacked quality and was scattered with eight bookings, and a dismissal for Caley’s Ryan Christie, four minutes into the second half.
St Johnstone’s miserable run of form in the Scottish Premiership continued when they suffered a 2-1 defeat by Kilmarnock at McDiarmid Park. Murray Davidson had put the hosts in front with a controversial opener, but two headers from Josh Magennis, in the space of three first-half minutes, gave the visitors victory.
Magennis failed to convert several opportunities to make it a hat-trick, but those missed chances were not punished by Tommy Wright’s men, who have now lost five consecutive league matches.
Dundee returned to winning ways with a 3-1 victory at Motherwell. Ex-Motherwell man David Clarkson and Gary Harkins had the visitors 2-0 up by half-time. Greg Stewart added a third goal after 59 minutes, and Henrik Ojamaa’s goal for the home team proved to be a mere consolation.
Championship leaders Hearts continued their unbeaten league form with a convincing 5-1 win over Dumbarton at Tynecastle. Osman Sow opened the scoring for the home side in the 26th minute, when he headed home his eighth league goal of the season from six yards out. Prince Buaben doubled the lead 15 minutes later, before substitute Jason Holt finished off good work by Alim Ozturk to make it three after the break.
Garry Fleming pulled one back for the visitors when he scrambled in a goal after a corner. Callum Paterson made the visitors pay for missed chances in the 84th minute, when he headed home from Billy King’s corner, before King made it 5-1, to leave Hearts nine points clear of Rangers.
Kris Boyd finally ended his seven-game scoring drought as Rangers romped to a 6-1 win over Raith Rovers at Ibrox.
He was given a helping hand by the Rovers keeper, Ross Laidlaw, as he scored his first league goal of the campaign. With Lee McCulloch, Nicky Law and Kenny Miller already on the scoresheet, Boyd’s left-footed strike was palmed into the Rovers net, when it should have been an easy save. Rovers had started the second half well, pulling the score back to 2-1 with Martin Scott’s header But, after losing 4-0 to Ally McCoist’s men at Stark’s Park last month, they suffered another thumping as substitute Jon Daly netted twice in the final five minutes.
