St Johnstone took all three points from a drab encounter against Ross County, with attacker Steven MacLean netting the only goal of the game early in the second-half.
It was an off-colour performance by County, with the defeat leaving them five points adrift of Saints, whose victory moved them into fourth place.
Both sides made one change from the previous weekend, with County welcoming back skipper Andrew Davies from the side that drew 1-1 against Celtic at Parkhead, the defender coming in for Chris Robertson. Saints were fresh from an impressive 3-0 victory against Aberdeen, but they were without injured midfielder Murray Davidson, who was replaced by Danny Swanson.
Saints were first to threaten after four minutes, with Darnell Fisher’s powerful header flicked over by the head of David Wotherspoon, who netted a double on his last visit to Dingwall in a 3-2 win for his side in December.
Chances were few and far between in the first-half however, with Saints attacker Graham Cummins spurning the best chance of the opening 45 minutes midway through the half, when Swanson jinked past Marcus Fraser before releasing the Irishman in a great position, only for him to be denied by a saving block by Paul Quinn.
County goalkeeper Scott Fox was called into action for the first time on 34 minutes, when he did well to tip Wotherspoon’s free-kick over the bar, but it was a first-half badly lacking in incident.
McIntyre brought Martin Woods on for Ian McShane at half-time, the Staggies initially looked better after the break, with no takers for Boyce’s downward header from Jonathan Franks’ delivery.
Saints’ threat re-emerged however, with Davies nearly caught napping by Wotherspoon on 54 minutes as he tried to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick, with the Saints midfielder pulling back for Swanson, who could only fire into the side-netting.
The visitors took a deserved lead on 54 minutes though, when Swanson’s corner picked out Joe Shaughnessy, whose goal-bound header was turned home from close-range by MacLean.
On a disappointing day for the hosts, their first attempt on target did not arrive until the 57th minute, with Saints goalkeeper Zander Clark doing well to save Franks’ low drive from the edge of the box.
The Staggies threatened late on, with Davies heading wide and Quinn sending an acrobatic effort over, but Saints held on to leapfrog Motherwell into fourth.
