St Johnstone climbed to within three points of Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premier League with a 2-1 victory against Kilmarnock at McDiarmid Park.

Murray Davidson's scrappy first-half opener was enough to put the home side on course for their fifth consecutive league victory – a landmark they last achieved in 1971. With under a minute remaining, Nigel Hasselbaink's perseverance paid off when he scored the second goal the in-form Perth side deserved. Earlier, the visitors had almost levelled when Cillian Sheridan struck the post but it was not until the game was beyond them that they scored in injury time through James Fowler's deflected strike.

A late goal from Colin McMenamin brought Ross County a 3-2 win against Hibernian and their first home victory in the SPL.

In an entertaining match Leigh Griffiths gave Hibs the lead in the sixth minute but Stuart Kettlewell equalised three minutes later. Iain Vigurs gave County the advantage in the 34th minute before Hibs scored through James McPake on the stroke of half-time. The match looked to be heading for a draw before the substitute McMenamin made an impact with the winner in the 83rd minute.

Niall McGinn was on target as Aberdeen extended their unbeaten run to 11 games and left Dundee United winless in six in a 1-1 draw. John Rankin's 22nd-minute goal was cancelled out eight minutes into the second half by McGinn, who also scored for Northern Ireland in Portugal in midweek. With two minutes remaining United should have sealed victory but Rankin fired wide across goal when he had the option of passing to Johnny Russell.

Lee McCulloch's two second-half goals ensured Rangers edged home 2-0 against Queen's Park after their poor performances in the Third Division struggles threatened to spread to Ibrox. McCulloch finished off some impressive build-up play from Dean Shiels in the 57th minute of a closer Glasgow derby than the majority of the 49,463 crowd would have anticipated.