St Mirren sealed their place in the top six of the cinch Premiership for a second successive season despite going down 2-1 at home to Hearts.
A Jorge Grant penalty and a Mikael Mandron own goal put the visitors two goals ahead, making Toyosi Olusanya’s terrific solo effort a mere consolation.
Hibernian’s defeat at home to St Johnstone, however, was enough to confirm Saints’ berth in the top half of the table for the five final games while Hearts consolidated their hold on third place.
Saints manager Stephen Robinson made three changes from the side that drew with Motherwell. Out went Ryan Strain, Mark O’Hara and James Bolton, replaced by Elvis Bwomono, Kwon Hyeok-kyu and Richard Taylor.
Hearts, in turn, made two switches following their draw with Kilmarnock, with Cammy Devlin and Kye Rowles coming in for Lawrence Shankland and Beni Baningime.
The windy conditions made things difficult for both sides, with a free-kick attempt from Saints’ Caolan Boyd-Munce soaring high over the crossbar.
But Hearts went in front from the penalty spot after 33 minutes. Marcus Fraser slid in with his arm raised to block Kenneth Vargas’ shot and VAR asked referee Alan Muir to take a second look.
He didn’t take long before awarding the spot-kick that Grant confidently slid past Zach Hemming to give the visitors the lead.
Hearts had the wind at their backs in the second period and almost took advantage with their first attack, Vargas’ shot across the face of goal drifting only narrowly beyond the far post.
The Costa Rican looked the player most likely to create something and another run and shot again went just wide.
St Mirren’s best chance early in the second half came from the boot of a Hearts player, with Frankie Kent nearly putting the ball into his own net after Olusanya had lost control but Zander Clark made a good save to spare his team-mate’s blushes.
Instead it was Hearts who scored next to double their lead in the 62nd minute. Alex Cochrane’s corner was headed back across goal by Alan Forrest and ended up ricocheting off Mandron and into the net.
The home side could have cut the deficit moments later but Taylor headed wide from Boyd-Munce’s corner.
St Mirren, though, did finally get a goal back not long afterwards.
Olusanya carried the ball towards the Hearts goal from the halfway line, holding off the backtracking defenders before finishing well past Clark.
Devlin should have scored a third for Hearts after a mistake from Alex Gogic but Hemming did well to block his shot before the ball was cleared.
VAR sent referee Muir to the screen for a second time in the game after Conor McMenamin appeared to be clipped by Aidan Denholm.
This time the official chose to stick with his on-field decision and didn’t award the penalty but the news from Easter Road meant both sets of fans were relatively content come full-time.
Guardiola expects repeat of 2022 as Man City and Arsenal face title race finale
Pep Guardiola has warned Manchester City to expect a repeat of the dramatic final day of 2021-22 when the Premier League title race goes to the wire on Sunday.
After beating Tottenham 2-0 in midweek, City know a victory at home to West Ham will secure a fourth straight title – a feat never previously achieved in English top-flight history.
Should City fail to win, Arsenal will leapfrog them and claim their first title since 2003-04 if they beat Everton at the Emirates Stadium.
Two of City's previous five title wins under Guardiola were decided on the final day, as they edged out Liverpool at the death in 2018-19 and 2021-22.
On the latter occasion, they went 2-0 down at home to Aston Villa before three goals in five second-half minutes – two from Ilkay Gundogan and one from Rodri – completed a stunning turnaround.
While many onlookers have already written West Ham off, Guardiola does not think a repeat is out of the question on Sunday.
"I have the feeling it will be like the Aston Villa game again," Guardiola said at Friday's pre-match press conference.
"We would like to be 3-0 up after 10 minutes but it's not going to happen. I've seen enough [West Ham matches].
"I'm ready for it to be a tough, tough game. I want to put in the minds of my players, 'Look at Tottenham, how they fight for every ball, the aggression they had.' I didn't have any doubts about that.
"The 11 players of West Ham will be ready to beat us. Like Aston Villa two seasons ago, they didn't play for anything but I know what happened.
"Ourselves and our people have to be ready from the first minute, to be with us and do it together."
Al-Ittihad pegged back as winless run rolls on
Mohamed Sherif scored late on as Al-Ittihad's winless run in the Saudi Pro League stretched to four games after a 1-1 draw with Al-Khaleej.
Al-Ittihad have endured a miserable title defence, and with just two games remaining, the highest the big-spending, PIF-backed club can finish is fourth.
Muhannad Al Shanqiti put them ahead on the stroke of half-time, yet despite having a further eight shots and accumulating 1.07 xG in the second half, Al-Ittihad could not add another.
Their profligacy proved costly in the 81st minute, with Egypt international Sherif snatching an equaliser for 11th-placed Al-Khaleej.
Al-Tai moved out of the relegation zone with a surprise 3-1 win over seventh-placed Al-Fateh, with Bernard Mensah scoring twice.
Al-Raed, meanwhile, claimed a 1-0 win at Al-Wehda.
Data Debrief: Kante the creator?
On the day he received a surprising France recall, N'Golo Kante created three chances for Al-Ittihad, leading the team.
On the flip side, Kante only attempted one tackle, with the midfielder showing a different side to his game, not that it proved fruitful for his team.
Ronaldo motivated to keep playing at top level
Cristiano Ronaldo has no intention of stopping as he says he is still motivated to compete with the "young lions" coming through in the game.
Ronaldo is reportedly considering signing a contract extension to keep him at Al-Nassr until June 2026, taking him past his 41st birthday.
The Portugal international has scored 42 goals in 41 appearances for the Saudi Pro League club this season, and he insists he is still motivated to keep going.
Speaking on the Whoop podcast, he said: "I feel proud to have this age and still compete at the highest level. It's great, and it gives me motivation to carry on.
"If you look at my career for the last 20 years, my level is high. If you are top for 20 years, it's unbelievable.
"I do that, and I continue to do that. For me, it's a big achievement."
Ronaldo has scored an incredible 891 goals in his career and is the all-time leading scorer in men’s international football with 128 goals.
"My biggest motivation is to carry on," he added. "It's not easy to be at this level.
"To still push, to still motivate, to carry on, to score goals, to be in good shape, to compete with the young lions that are coming and that when they play against me, they want to show me that they are stronger and faster than me.
"You have to prepare very well, not just physically but mentally, too. This is the challenge.
"Talent without work is nothing and work without talent is nothing. They have to work together at the same time. I have both. I can't say that I have more of one than the other.
"Small details will make the difference. Consistency is the most difficult thing.
"Are you willing to do that? That's the main point, because everyone wants to be Cristiano, but doing it is difficult. Discipline is the most difficult thing."
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