Rowan Vine scored the winner as St Johnstone beat St Mirren 1-0 at McDiarmid Park to move into fourth place in the Scottish Premier league level on 40 points with Motherwell. St Mirren are eight points adrift of the top six with six games left until the league splits.

Vine shot home from close range early in the second half after Murray Davidson had bundled the ball goalwards following Mehdi Abeid's corner. It followed a scrappy 45 minutes on a bumpy pitch. The home side built on their lead and hit the frame of the goal three times with their own goalkeeper, Alan Mannus, not seriously troubled in the second half. The victory consolidated Steve Lomas's team's position in the top half of the SPL and delivered a major blow to the Buddies' chances of joining them.

Aberdeen were unable to capitalise on their chances as Kilmarnock battled back to earn a 1-1 draw at Rugby Park. Rory Fallon's volley gave the Dons a deserved lead before Paul Heffernan restored parity for Kilmarnock five minutes before half-time. After passing up a number of opportunities in the opening 45 minutes the second half brought more chances for the visitors. However, Aberdeen found Cammy Bell in inspired form in the Killie goal and ensured the points were shared.

Ross County stretched their unbeaten run in 2013 to eight games with a convincing 3-0 victory against Motherwell at the Global Energy Stadium. After a slow start County went on to dominate with Ivan Sproule scoring his firth goal in as many starts to give County the lead 11 minutes from the break. Sproule collected a Rocco Quinn pass and struck the ball under goalkeeper Darren Randolph. Goals from Richard Brittain, with help from an assist by Sproule after 70 minutes, and an Iain Vigurs volley in the final minute completed a fine second-half display from the home side.

Dundee have appointed their former player John Brown as manager and Kilmarnock have signed their former striker Kris Boyd until the end of the season.

In the Third division, Rangers came back from conceding an early own goal to win 3-1 at Berwick Rangers. Anestis Argyriou had deflected the ball into his own net but Dean Shiels' penalty provided a swift response and goals from Andy Little and Sébastien Faure sealed the win.

The victory puts Rangers 22 points clear at the top of the table.