St Mirren returned to winning ways after a dominant 1-0 victory over Livingston in the cinch Premiership.
Sean Kelly turned the ball into his own net with eight minutes remaining in the first half to give Saints their first victory in four matches.
St Mirren, who remain in third place in the table, passed up numerous chances to add to their lead as well as having a goal ruled out by VAR in the closing stages.
Livingston find themselves bottom after another toothless showing.
Jonah Ayunga made his first appearance since January when he was named in the Saints starting XI in place of Ryan Strain, who has been ruled out with a groin injury. Stephen Robinson also welcomed back skipper Mark O’Hara, who missed the 4-0 defeat at Dundee due to illness.
David Martindale handed Michael Nottingham his first start for the club as the Livingston boss made three changes to the team that lost 2-0 to Rangers last time out. Jason Holt and Kurtis Guthrie were preferred to Luiyi De-Lucas and Mo Sangare, while Cristian Montano was unable to recover from a hamstring injury.
O’Hara glanced wide as the hosts began brightly, though they would find clear-cut chances difficult to come by in the early exchanges.
It was a pattern that would continue as the first half went on, however, St Mirren did have a rare sight of goal when Richard Taylor did well to find space on the edge of the area before sending an effort past the post.
Just before the half-hour mark, Mikael Mandron connected with Caolan Boyd-Munce’s corner, though he would see his effort deflected into the grateful arms of Shamal George.
Livingston had offered nothing in the way of a goal threat but they almost found themselves ahead when Nottingham glanced James Penrice’s corner beyond Zach Hemming and against the crossbar.
The home side broke the deadlock with eight minutes remaining in the first half, Greg Kiltie did well to weave his way into the box before getting a shot away which was parried as far as Kelly, who was unable to avoid diverting the ball into his own net.
All of the momentum was with St Mirren, and Ayunga almost marked his return with a goal as he looped a header against the bar just before half-time.
Taylor should have done better when the ball broke to him on the edge of the box shortly after the break, but he would blaze well over the top.
A low drive from Boyd-Muncie crept agonisingly wide as Saints looked to extend their advantage, though they would survive a scare when Taylor was forced to clear Guthrie’s goal-bound shot off the line.
Stephen Robinson was dealt a blow when Taylor was taken off on a stretcher after sustaining a nasty looking ankle injury – forcing the Saints boss to replace the defender with Charles Dunne.
The game should have been put beyond doubt when Boyd-Munce seized on a defensive lapse by Joel Nouble before teeing up Mandron who somehow failed to find the target.
Moments later, it looked as if St Mirren had clinched all three points when a scramble inside the box ended with Tom Parkes turning the ball into his own net, however, a lengthy VAR check led to the goal being disallowed for offside.
A wonderful stop by Hemming denied Nouble a dramatic injury-time equaliser following good work by Bruce Anderson, while at the other end O’Hara’s shot flew narrowly over.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Clement wants ruthless Rangers after nervy win over Hearts
Rangers boss Philippe Clement called on his team to show greater ruthlessness after they were made to work for a 1-0 win over Hearts in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.
Cyriel Dessers put the Gers ahead after just six minutes at Ibrox, diverting James Tavernier's effort past visiting goalkeeper Craig Gordon.
However, Clement's team failed to build on that quick start and inched over the line amid a tense atmosphere, moving back to within nine points of pacesetters Celtic and Aberdeen.
Speaking after the game, Clement acknowledged his players are fatigued after a gruelling run of fixtures but added they must start taking their chances.
"We made too many wrong choices with the ball and became too sloppy," Clement said.
"It's the end of a very busy period, though, with a lot of travelling and they're all human beings, not robots.
"We missed scoring the second goal and we know that until you get that goal the other team stays in the game, so I want us to kill the belief of the opponent faster.
"I'm very satisfied with the result and the deserved three points. We didn't show the same quality in the second half and we didn't finish off the game. We had a few chances, but it stays nervous until the last second."
Rangers host Dundee United after the international break, while Celtic visit Hearts and Aberdeen travel to St. Mirren.
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