Patient Barrie McKay finally broke his Hearts duck - but Robbie Neilson was left cursing his luck as Beni Baningime hobbled off to add to the Jambos’ injury woes.
McKay struck a sensational second half volley for his first goal at the 30th time of asking after Baningime’s early opener to move the Jambos to within eight points of clinching third spot.
But just a week after notching his own first goal for Hearts, Baningime then hobbled off with a knee injury after half an hour with the derby double header just around the corner.
That season-defining back-to-back league and cup battle with Hibs is edging ever closer.
But the gap between Auld Reekie’s finest has now stretched to a virtually insurmountable 16 points with Dundee United moving fourth and a massive 14 points behind the Jambos.
Neilson, who couldn’t fill his bench such is the injury list with John Souttar, Gary Mackay-Steven and Cammy Devlin among the big name absentees, paid tribute to McKay’s wonder goal but admitted he faces an anxious wait on Baningime.
He said: "The goal has been coming for Barrie for a while.
"I didn't think it would be a tap in when the goal came because he's a top player and we’re lucky to have him.
"I was behind it and when it left his boot, I thought it was going for the top corner.
"Hopefully that might open the floodgates for him.
"Barrie is a quiet lad and he just gets on with it, but the boys were giving him stick.
"We also had Beni scoring with another tackle!
"We will just need to see how Beni is. It's his knee and he had that problem earlier in the season for a while. It was disappointing but Toby Sibbick can come in and play centre midfield for us so we have options.
“But Barrie been absolutely outstanding for us. We're lucky to have him here."
It took only three minutes for the opener to arrive as Baningime doubled his career tally with another tap in.
McKay began a sweeping move down the left, feeding Liam Boyce before Ellis Simms fired a low cross to the back post that was knocked back into the danger area for the former Everton man to net.
With the Jambos well in command they suffered a cruel blow just after the half hour mark when Baningime went down after hurdling a challenge from Ayo Obileye and landing awkwardly.
But McKay’s big moment arrived in the 58th minute when he swivelled 12 yards out to execute a stunning volley from Nathaniel Atkinson’s cross and leave Stryjek helpless.
Neilson was delighted to see the unlikely lads end their hunt for goals.
He said: “It's something we have been working on for a while. There was period when where I think we had Haring, Baningime and Devlin on 20 games each. So that's 60 between them and they hadn't scored a goal yet.
“So we're trying to get them in there and try and get them up the pitch. It's really important with the movement of the 3-4-3 that the midfielder goes into the 10. I think when they get a goal they then realise it and it spirals from there."
