Hearts remain in touching distance at the top of the Scottish Premiership after Callum Paterson’s fourth goal of the season helped them on the way to a 2-0 home victory over Ross County.
The Hearts captain, Blazej Augustyn, was sent off in the second half but it did not prove to be costly as Osman Sow added a second goal to leave them three points off top.
The Hearts manager, Robbie Neilson, said that his players had trained with 10 men due to the referee’s penchant for handing out red cards – but he is unlikely to face any action this time after seeing his side hold on to claim back-to-back victories.
“I thought we were pretty comfortable, even when we went down to 10 men. I have said before, and it got me into trouble, but we do practice with 10 men in training,’ he said.
“We were very disciplined, kept it tight and were able to hit them on the counterattack. The whole team worked hard and it was a really good team performance to get the three points.”
Tommy Wright was pleased St Johnstone collected three points in what he conceded was a terrible game at Inverness. Liam Craig’s last-minute penalty was the only goal.
The sending-off of Dave Mackay at the start of the second half was the only meaningful action before Craig’s spot-kick, which he won after being hauled down by Danny Devine.
Despite the win, Wright felt his side’s performance still left a bit to be desired. “We’re delighted with the result but not the performance in terms of what we did with the ball. I make no apologies for it.
“It was a terrible game but we had to get something out of it and we stayed in the game. When you stay in the game I always believe you’ll get another opportunity and we got it with the last kick of the ball.”
Josh Magennis continued his good form with his seventh goal of the season and Steven Smith added a second goal as Kilmarnock won 2-1 at Dundee, with Rhys Healey grabbing a consolation for the home side.
Dundee had beaten Killie 4-0 earlier in the season but the Ayrshire side started with more intensity and Magennis got his side off the mark with a header after eight minutes.
Smith added a second goal minutes into the second half after good build-up work from Rory McKenzie, who beat three Dundee players before setting up the scorer. Gary Locke’s Kilmarnock move up to eighth place in the league one point behind their opponents.
Dougie Imrie salvaged a point for 10-man Hamilton for the second week in a row to earn the visitors a 1-1 draw at Partick.
Thistle opened the scoring on the hour through Mathias Pogba after Lucas Tagliapietra was dismissed late in the first half by the referee, Euan Anderson, for a push on Pogba.
But they were unable to hold on for the three points as Imrie struck 12 minutes from time for his fourth goal of the season.
