Scottish Premiership: Ross County 0-2 St Johnstone

Danny Swanson (left) and Chris Kane (right) were involved in both goals

Danny Swanson scored one and set up the other as St Johnstone plundered the points against Ross County in Dingwall.

Chris Kane also had a hand in both goals, being pulled down by Jay McEveley to give Swanson the chance to open the scoring with a penalty.

That came three minutes before the end of an otherwise uneventful first half.

County came back into the game after the break, but Kane fired the second from a fine Swanson through ball to secure Saints' victory.

The Perth side, who remain in fourth place in the Premiership, had arrived having gone four games unbeaten against their hosts last season.

And they left with County's run of games without a win being extended to five.

Bad news for County and Northern Ireland

Liam Boyce is likely to miss Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifiers

New signings Chris Burke and Ryan Dow got late run out for County, but there was more bad news for them when striker Liam Boyce was helped off near the end.

Manager Jim McIntyre had handed teenage striker Greg Morrison a first start as replacement for injured duo Craig Curran and Alex Schalk.

Then top marksman Boyce suffered what looked like a nasty injury with only five minutes of the game to go.

The striker was involved in an accidental collision in a packed penalty area and was helped from the field at a time when McIntyre had already committed all three substitutes.

To add to Boyce's pain, it seems certain he will now miss Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and defending champions Germany.

Needless penalty conceded

County's injury jinx had struck even before a ball was kicked in anger as they also lost key defender Andrew Davies, who was injured in the warm-up, with McEveley drafted in from the bench.

Of course, the former Scotland defender has bags of experience himself, which makes it all the more painful for Staggies supporters to see the summer arrival from Sheffield United concede a needless penalty to gift the visitors the lead.

It's doubtful if even McEveley knows why he bundled Kane over in the box when the striker seemed to be going nowhere, but the result was inevitable.

Swanson sent Scott Fox the wrong way to convert his fifth spot kick of the season and edge Saints in front after an opening period in which they carried more threat.

Burke unable to turn tide

Former Scotland winger Chris Burke made his Ross County debut

Not that there was a lot of goalmouth action in the first half, but St Johnstone always looked to have the edge in terms of what little was created at that point.

The home side carried more attacking threat in the second half, but it wasn't until late in the game that they finally caused goalkeeper Zander Clark any worries.

Burke came off the bench to test the goalkeeper in the incident that led to Boyce's injury, but by then they were two goals down and really out of contention for any points.

That saw St Johnstone sweep up field, cutting the defence open for Kane to finish in some style and take them on to the 14-point mark.

Ross County manager Jim McIntyre: "We will know more about Liam's injury later on, but we think it is a medial ligament injury and we are hoping he's not out too long.

"But there is no excuses as we should have done better than we did today. There's no doubt that first half was the worst 45 minutes of the season so far.

"It wasn't good enough, as simple as that. It was really disappointing and we got what we deserved and we just have to take it on the chin.

"We would have gone fourth today if we had won, but after watching that, it is clear that we still have a lot of hard work to do."

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright: "Really satisfied with the performance as we were as good as we have been this year and I was really pleased with the first half in particular.

"Second half, we didn't start it as we should have and we put ourselves under a bit of pressure, but we got a great second goal.

"We had a few opportunities like that and we had some great link-up play between Danny Swanson and Murray Davidson leading to Chris Kane's goal.

"I'm really pleased for him because he has been playing well and I said to him before the game that he was due a goal for the way he has been going."