Hibernian profited from an incident destined for the 'What Happened Next' section on A Question Of Sport to record their first victory in Perth in seven years as they beat St Johnstone 3-0.

The Edinburgh side had been this season's advert for the quality of Scottish football outside the Old Firm and were already in the ascendancy when Saints centre-back Jim Weir became the centre of attention in bizarre fashioin.

Hibs' bull of a centre-forward Mixu Paatelainen had been sent through by Russell Latapy's cross and Weir, the last man, committed himself to a challenge before the Finn could reach the box.

Down went Paatelainen on the very edge of the white paint and down went Weir, who had clearly played man not ball.

Weir stayed down and was carried off on a stretcher as his colleagues prepared to face the resulting free-kick.

Saints boss Sandy Clark was busy trying to send on Darren Dods as Weir's replacement but soon realised this was not possible when referee Hugh Dallas waved a red card at the home dugout.

Weir was being simultaneously sent off and carried off.

Dods did come on, for ex-Hibernian star Paul Hartley, but not before Frank Sauzee had smashed in the free-kick via the wall for the opening goal.

St Johnstone had started brightly, with Gary Smith needing to slide in to stop young Keigan Parker going clear in the second minute.

They forced a trio of early corners but by the time the game was 10 minutes old, Alan Main, the goalkeeper newly restored to the Scotland squad, had been called on to make two saves.

The first was from former Saint John O'Neil and was an acrobatic tip-over. The second was from shoot-on-sight Sauzee and required a deflection round a post.

Hibernian doubled their lead in the 24th minute with a goal of the highest quality by David Zitelli.

He was making his second start for Hibs and when Latapy lifted the ball over a static Saints backline Zitelli was through.

There was no hint of a flag and he lobbed the ball over the advancing Main for a gifted finish.

Shell-shocked Saints offered little in reply before the break save for a Craig Russell shot that was always going wide and a Graeme Jones header from a free-kick that went over.

The half ended with Main required once more, this time to deny Stuart Lovell.

Not long after the restart the Australian was lucky not to be booked for a blatant dive when Dasovic challenged and it was the Canadian who finally recorded the home side's first shot on target, a first-time effort that had Nick Colgan stumbling to tip it round a post.

Russell was close with an effort soon after but, an off-target Dods header apart, that was as good as it got for Saints until it was too late.

Zitelli had the ball in the net in the 55th minute when he got the better of Alan Kernaghan and his finish past Main in the most acute of angles while the defender was left nose down in the turf was top quality.

However, following confrontation with the linesman, Dallas ruled Kernaghan had been pushed.

Zitelli twice went close afterwards, the second being an outrageous volley from a Latapy cross-field ball.

Sauzee forced Main to block with his legs with yet another rocket and John O'Neil, the former Saint, ended a run to the edge of the box with a shot that was inches too high.

But it was left to Latapy, the Trinidad and Tobago international deemed to be too old by a host of English clubs, to have the final say.

His shimmy past Dasovic was breathtaking and so was the finish from the outside of his boot that Main could not reach.

Gary Bollan tested Colgan from distance and substitute Tommy Lovenkrands fired over from outside the box, but the points were already on their way back to Edinburgh.