Highlights: St Johnstone 1-0 Ross County

Tyrone Smith
BBC Sport Scotland at McDiarmid Park

St Johnstone's Scottish Premiership survival hopes were give a significant boost after a deserved 1-0 victory over Ross County.

Makenzie Kirk's close-range finish, smashing in after a Stephen Duke-McKenna effort was parried by Jordan Amissah, moves Simo Valakari's side to within three points of second bottom Dundee with 10 games of the season to play.

County travelled to Perth with a record of four wins from their previous five away league games, but it was the hosts who had the better of a competitive first half.

St Johnstone created several good goalscoring opportunities but were foiled on each occasion by an inspired Jordan Amissah in the County goal.

Amissah produced a wonderful diving save to tip a Stephen Duke-McKenna free-kick around a post early on.

And he bettered that stop as the interval approached, showing great reactions to somehow keep a Sam Curtis diving header out.

The keeper was also called into action to deny Kirk and Jonathan Svedberg.

County made a better start to the second with Connor Randall fizzing a shot just wide before Elijah Campbell headed straight at Andy Fisher from a couple of yards.

Kirk's goal ended that momentum and St Johnstone almost doubled their advantage, when Duke-McKenna fired just wide.

At the other end Fisher got down well to hold a Nohan Kenneh shot as St Johnstone saw the game out to secure a crucial three points.

St Johnstone survival hopes boosted

This feels like a big few days for St Johnstone in terms of their hopes of avoiding automatic relegation.

A healthy haul of points from their home date with County, and their massive trip to face second bottom Dundee, appeared a pre-requisite with regards to their aim of trying to dodge the dreaded drop. And they have achieved the first part of that.

After back-to-back defeats, the victory over County will have everybody at McDiarmid Park feeling a bit better about themselves.

Valakari's side remain bottom of the table and they still have plenty of work to do, but if they can back this victory up with another at Dens Park on Sunday, the Perth side will definitely believe they can pull off a relegation great escape.

County must tread carefully

This result is a reminder to County that they still have work to do in order to keep themselves clear of trouble.

Their form of late – particularly away from home – has been excellent, and has rightly had fans dreaming of the top six.

For all of that, though, they remain worryingly close to the relegation play-off spot.

You do get a sense they will be fine, and they have shown enough in recent times to suggest that they have enough quality to banish any concerns.

But until they have the points in the bag to ensure that is the case, County will have to tread carefully over the next few weeks.

What they said

St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari: "It was a big win. This match was our most must-win game for our hopes for the rest of the season.

"I'm most happy with how the players performed in this high-pressure game.

"We kept our heads, we were well-balanced in transition and defended when we needed to. To win the game in this circumstances, I'm very happy."

Ross County manager Don Cowie: "I'm really disappointed on the back of two really good performances and victories. We got what we deserved out of the match.

"St Johnstone winning gives them momentum - it narrows the gap but we're not going to get caught up on one result, one performance.

"We're really disappointed and frustrated but we've only got a couple of days before another really important game so we need to get back to what we've done."

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