Oisin McEntee headed a crucial late goal as Hearts reasserted themselves at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 1-0 win over Dundee. On a tense day at Tynecastle, Hearts looked in danger of dropping points for the second weekend running after their deflating 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock last Saturday.
The breakthrough came in the 77th minute when McEntee rose at the back post to head Marc Leonard’s free-kick powerfully beyond Jon McCracken.
Hearts were reduced to 10 men in stoppage time when Frankie Kent received a second yellow card for a foul on Charlie Reilly, but they held firm.
Motherwell and Hibernian fought out a scrappy goalless draw at Fir Park that keeps the hosts in pole position to seal a European place. Motherwell are six points clear of Hibs with seven games left.
Livingston are 12 points adrift at the bottom after their 2-0 defeat at Kilmarnock. The bottom two met at Rugby Park, with goals from Joe Hugill and Findlay Curtis extending Livingston’s winless league run to 29 games.
St Mirren secured a vital victory for their survival chances thanks to Liam Donnelly’s first goal for the club. The midfielder, playing as an emergency centre-half, headed home in the 63rd minute as Saints won 2-1 for the second time at Falkirk this season.
Barney Stewart’s 17th goal of the season had given Falkirk an early lead, but Miguel Freckleton, culpable in the buildup to the opener, equalised two minutes later for the visitors.
Martin O’Neill has braced his Celtic players for a difficult game against Dundee United on a Tannadice pitch that has proved a major challenge in recent months. Peter Leven, at the time Aberdeen’s interim manager, said the surface was the worst he had witnessed in his career after a goalless draw with Aberdeen last month.
After sustained wet weather and a number of postponements for waterlogged areas, the pitch will have dried out, but O’Neill knows the surface is likely to affect Sunday’s game. “It’s a really difficult game for us,” he said. “We know that. So as long as we’re mentally prepared for that, that’s absolutely fine. I’m sure that even with a couple of days’ sun, I don’t think the pitch is going to improve that much.”
