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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.
“We’ve been tested of late, but despite all that we’re going to be top of the league in April,” said Derek McInnes, the Hearts manager. “We’re huge underdogs, but for us still to be where we are, churning out victories, as we did again, there’s a lot to be said for 1-0 victories.”
Rangers romped into second place behind Hearts with a comfortable 4-1 win over Aberdeen at Ibrox. Danny Rohl’s side responded to Hearts’ victory earlier in the day with Tochi Chukwuani opening the scoring in the 35th minute before 18-year-old Tottenham loanee Mikey Moore added a second three minutes after the break.
Dennis Geiger pulled a goal back for Aberdeen in the 52nd minute but Rangers midfielder Nico Raskin restored their two-goal lead with a fine finish 10 minutes later.
Captain James Tavernier thundered home a stunning free-kick with the last kick of the game to move Rangers back to within three points of Hearts, leapfrogging Celtic into second place. Celtic play away at Dundee United on Sunday lunchtime.
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.”
