January signing Jamie McCart makes his first St Johnstone start, while midfielder Matt Butcher, who arrived yesterday, is on the home bench.

Centre-back McCart is one of five changes from Wednesday's 3-0 defeat to Celtic, with right-back Anthony Ralston, midfielder Liam Craig and strikers Chris Kane and Stevie May also restored to the line-up.

Dropping out are Callum Booth, Wallace Duffy, Jason Holt, Callum Hendry and Michael O'Halloran.

Hearts go with the majority of the side that stunned Rangers last weekend, with Japanese playmaker Ryo Meshino handed a start in place of young Lewis Moore.

There is no place in the squad for midfielder Marcel Langer, the deadline-day signing from Germany.

Dundee United will be "definitely" looking for more than £3m to part with striker Lawrence Shankland in the summer, says owner Mark Ogren.

Speaking to Radio Scotland, the American confirmed that the Scottish Championship club rejected offers for the 27-goal forward in January.

"There were some offers, but we pushed back and weren’t interested. We didn’t really entertain anything. He wants to finish what we’re started here," Ogren said.

"We’d be very happy to keep him [next season] but if the situation was right for both Lawrence and the club we’d be open to a situation where he might leave. It would definitely have to be more than that [£3m]."

Image source, SNS

John Barnes
BBC Scotland at Rugby Park

Ross County didn’t return to the Highlands after their midweek defeat against Rangers at Ibrox. The squad stayed in Cumbernauld and trained at Toryglen Football Centre in Glasgow in preparation for today’s match.

County will be hoping that three day bonding session will help them to end a run of seven games without a win.

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin has rebutted any claims that new Kilmarnock signing Kirk Broadfoot paid his own transfer fee to leave the Paisley club.

Speaking to BBC Scotland, he said: "People are talking about a fee. Believe me what we're talking about is pennies. For Kirk to say that it has come out of his own pocket, I'd like to see the bank statement to say he's transferred money to St Mirren. He's probably taken a hit on his wages of £100 a week or something like that. We're talking peanuts here."

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There must have been a fair few deals that didn't get over the line last night.

Newcastle United winger Christian Atsu didn't fancy a loan move to Celtic, Hearts couldn't persuade Celtic to part with goalkeeper Craig Gordon or prise forward Mamadou Thiam away from Barnsley.

St Mirren had a loan bid for Celtic's Vakoun Bayo rebuffed and Hibs fell short with an offer for Dunfermline's prolific striker Kevin Nisbet.

It also looks like Aberdeen were frustrated after "going to the wire" for a mystery forward.

Yesterday was rather hectic, with loads of last-minute wheeling and dealing in Scotland's top flight.

Motherwell banked a tidy sum, Aberdeen snapped up a Venezuelan international, Kirk Broadfoot paid his own way back to Kilmarnock and Rangers and Hibs indulged in some swapsies.

Here's a full list of all the moves IN...

00:00 Seifedin Chabbi [Gaziantep FK - St Mirren] Loan

22:45 Rolando Aarons [Newcastle - Motherwell] Loan

22:30 Florian Kamberi [Hibernian - Rangers] Loan

22:30 Greg Docherty [Rangers - Hibernian] Loan

22:00 Kirk Broadfoot [St Mirren - Kilmarnock] Undisclosed

20:30 Marc McNulty [Reading - Hibernian] Loan

19:30 Isaiah Jones [Middlesbrough - St Johnstone] Loan

19:30 Dolly Menga [Atletico Petroleos - Livingston] Recalled from loan

19:00 David Templeton [Burton - Hamilton] Free

18:00 Matt Butcher [Bournemouth - St Johnstone] Loan

17:00 Alex Jakubiak [Watford - St Mirren] Loan

16:00 Ronald Hernandez [Stabaek - Aberdeen] Undisclosed

13:10 Paul McGinn [St Mirren - Hibernian] Undisclosed

10:45 Marcel Langer [Schalke 04 - Hearts] Free

10:30 Ianis Hagi [Genk - Rangers] Loan

Cove Rangers and Edinburgh City are miles in front of the rest and both will be expected to win again this afternoon.

Can Queen's Park keep up the signs of improvement after their recent spate of signings from the higher leagues?

Image source, BBC Sport

Two of the top three go head-to-head this afternoon and Airdrieonians could do with taking something from league leaders Raith Rovers to stay in the title hunt.

Falkirk are ticking along very nicely in second spot, continuing their unbeaten record under co-managers David McCracken and Lee Miller with a Scottish Cup replay success against Arbroath, and will fancy their chances away to bottom side Stranraer.

The battle for the fourth play-off spot is wide open.

Image source, BBC Sport

Dundee United held on to top scorer Lawrence Shankland, so even the most nervous of Tannadice fans will be feeling that it's almost job done as they look to build on a whopping 18-point lead at the top.

Partick Thistle are stuck at the bottom following last night's 1-1 draw with Ayr United at Firhill, so Morton, Queen of the South and Alloa will be hoping to pull away from the danger zone and join the bun fight for play-off places.

Image source, BBC Sport

St Johnstone: Clark, Kerr, Gordon, McCart, Ralston, Tanser, Craig, McCann, Wotherspoon, Kane, May

Substitutes: Parish, Booth, Butcher, Hendry, Swanson, O'Halloran, Holt

Heart of Midlothian: Pereira, Clare, Souttar, Halkett, White, Sibbick, Irving, Henderson, Meshino, Naismith, Boyce

Substitutes: Zlamal, Bozanic, Washington, Ikpeazu, Dikamona, Moore, Avdijaj

Hibernian: Marciano, Gray, McGregor, Hanlon, Stevenson, Omeonga, Newell, Boyle, Allan, Horgan, Doidge.

Substitutes: Bogdan, McGinn, James, Hallberg, Murray, Docherty, McNulty.

St Mirren: Hladky, Flynn, McCarthy, Famewo, Waters, Foley, MacPherson, Morias, Andreu, Durmus, Obika.

Substitutes: Lyness, Hodson, McGrath, McAllister, Mullen, Cooke, Jakubiak.

Kilmarnock: Branescu, O'Donnell, Del Fabro, Findlay, Hamalainen, McKenzie, Dicker, Power, Burke, Kabamba, Brophy.

Substitutes: Koprivec, Millen, Broadfoot, El Makrini, Bunn, Kiltie, St Clair.

Ross County: Baxter, Foster, Donaldson, Watson, Fraser, Tillson, Cowie, Vigurs, Mullin, Erwin, Shaw.

Substitutes: Laidlaw, Kelly, Fontaine, Mckay, Spence, Spittal, Paton.

Livingston: McCrorie, McMillan, Taylor-Sinclair, Brown, Guthrie, Bartley, Sibbald, Pittman, Robinson, Lawless, Dykes

Substitutes: Maley, Lithgow, Crawford, Jacobs, Souda, Lawson, Lamie

Motherwell: Gillespie, Tait, Gallagher, Hartley, Carroll, Donnelly, Campbell, Polworth, Ilic, Long, Hylton

Substitutes: Carson, Grimshaw, Seedorf, O'Hara, Manzinga, MacIver, Mugabi

Rangers: McGregor, Polster, Goldson, Katic, Barisic, Davis, Kamara, Arfield, Aribo, Kent, Morelos.

Substitutes: Foderingham, Edmundson, Tavernier, Barker, Ojo, Hagi, Kamberi.

Aberdeen: Lewis, Logan, Taylor, McKenna, Considine, Ferguson, Ojo, McGeouch, McGinn, Kennedy, Cosgrove.

Substitutes: Cerny, Hernandez, Devlin, Campbell, Hedges, Gallagher, Anderson.

It's Rangers' turn to go first this weekend as the Premiership title race continues. Steven Gerrard's men will cut the gap on Celtic to two points if they beat Aberdeen at Ibrox this afternoon.

The league leaders visit Hamilton Accies on Sunday.

There are sure to be a sprinkling of new faces on show after all of yesterday's comings and goings.

Kilmarnock were strangely subdued for a club in freefall, while Rangers, St Johnstone, St Mirren and Hibs were busy on the final day of the winter transfer window.

Image source, BBC Sport