Scottish premiership: state of top-six with two left matches

Hibernian’s 3-0 victory led them to 47 points and marked their place with two games to save.

This was a barely credible notion in early November, when David Gray’s team sat at the bottom of the Scottish premiership after a single victory in their first 12 games.

A magnificent form of form has changed the mood in Leith and seated a clear point in third place.

“A fantastic day of work and we deserved it completely given the performance,” Gray said after the victory on the lower side St Johnstone.

“At the beginning of the season the goal is to end up among the first six for this football club. So you start looking towards European places and if this is achievable. This is the goal, this is the goal.

“We had a really difficult start, we had to go through those adversities at the beginning of the season, but now there are 15 games unbeaten in the championship that gave us the opportunity to secure the first six with two games to go.”

Aberdeen swept the 4-1 Motherwell helper to confirm their place also in the upper half.

Their route was clearly contrasting with Hibs, with a series of 31 points from their first 11 games followed by a race without victories of 14 games.

However, manager Jimmy Thelin was happy to seal their top position having stabilized the ship with three wins, two draws and defeated by Celtic in the last six games.

“From the beginning we had a long -term clear picture, but we want to arrive in Europe this season,” said the Aberdeen boss.