High-flying St Johnstone opened up a four-point gap on closest rivals Hearts with another impressive win on the road.
It was a victory secured without first-choice strikers Fran Sandaza and Cillian Sheridan and now they face a three-game sequence at home, with the weekend presenting an opportunity to close in on third-placed Motherwell.
An early goal from Liam Craig gave Saints the perfect start at Tynecastle. Then skipper Dave Mackay converted a late spot-kick after Finnish keeper Peter Enckelman had pulled off a magnificent penalty save at the other end to deny Jamie Hamill an equaliser.
The capital club raised home hopes of a comeback when the elusive Mehdi Taouil lashed home a 22-yard strike with four minutes remaining but Saints and Enckelman, in particular, stood firm.
Craig hailed the keeper’s 63rd-minute dive to palm Hamill’s strike round the post as ”save of the season.”
But the third-minute goalscorer, who calmly lobbed home from the edge of the area after pouncing on Andy Webster’s half-cleared header of a Mackay cross, confessed the keeper’s spot-kick heroics at Celtic Park and Tynecastle had surprised his teammates.
He joked: ”Before the cup semi-final with Motherwell last season we were hoping it wouldn’t go to penalties because Pete didn’t save too many when we were practising.
”I know I’m being harsh on him but that’s his job. But it helped a long way towards winning the match. It was a massive point in the game and gave us a huge boost for the last 20 minutes.
”Looking back at last season we finished eighth comfortably without scoring goals. We kept a lot of clean sheets and Encks was a big part of that.
”It’s great when you have a keeper with his experience and we are defending well as a team.”
After Craig’s early strike, only a fine Mario Kello save prevented hard-grafting centre Marcus Haber doubling their advantage with a crisp shot on a bitterly cold and wet day in the capital.
Craig said: ”We wanted to start well after making it hard for ourselves by going one down against Hibs the previous week. Hearts are a massive club with great expectations and when you go to places like Tynecastle, Ibrox and Celtic Park you have to try to get their fans on their backs.
“I think we did that again.”
Boss Steve Lomas, who was consigned to the stand for a one-game touchline ban, has now secured seven points from nine but Craig was adamant that their focus is on the looming Motherwell game rather than longer-term ambitions.
”We know we have a decent squad of boys here with real togetherness. That came from Derek McInnes at the start of the season and the new manager has kept it going along with Tommy Wright and Alec Cleland.
”There is great depth in the squad. We just want to finish as high up the league as possible.”
Manager Lomas admitted he had been squirming in his seat after Taouil’s late strike, with Enckelman securing the points with a stoppage time tip over from another Elliott effort.
He said: ”We knew they would throw the kitchen sink at us because their fans demand that. The turning point was big Pete’s unbelievable penalty save. That was a bit special at a time when we had our backs to the wall.”
Lomas paid tribute to squad men like Marcus Haber, Carl Finnigan and David McCracken, who got their chance at Tynecastle.
”Our strength in depth is very pleasing and so is our work ethic. It’s a pleasure to go in and work with these boys,” he said. ”I couldn’t pick one above the others but Murray Davidson’s brother was involved in a car crash on Friday night so to come in and put in a shift like that was special.
“He is poorly but ok. It was in Murray’s mind but he was different class.”
Lomas revealed that he didn’t want to gamble on top scorer Sandaza, who tweaked an abductor in training on Friday, with the crucial festive season looming. Defender Wright pulled up early in the game with a thigh injury and will be assessed again today.