St Johnstone's Paul Hartley had the ball in the net against his old club Hibernian at McDiarmid Park only to see the goal disallowed by referee Hugh Dallas as the game remained goalless at half time.

It was one of few moments of excitement in a drab first period during which Hartley's team-mate Nathan Lowndes also managed to bring a fine save from Nick Colgan.

Russell Latapy was named in the Hibs line-up after pledging himself to the Easter Road club for the rest of the season.

The Trinidad and Tobago international is out of contract at the end of the present campaign and rumours had been rife that Latapy was set to sign for Celtic before Saturday night's Scottish transfer deadline.

But no contact was made by the champions-elect, leaving Latapy to take his place in an attacking starting line-up aiming to make the most of Rangers' shock home defeat to Dundee United at Ibrox.

Though the visitors started brightly, Saints had the first shot on goal, Momo Sylla's weak effort from the edge of the box easily saved by Colgan.

The Ghanain volleyed another shot wide soon afterwards to raise a cheer from among the home supporters in another sparse Perth crowd.

Paul Fenwick was fortunate to escape a booking when he held back Hartley and when the Saints player fired home John Paul McBride's quickly taken free-kick, referee Dallas brought howls of derision from the stands when he ruled McBride had taken the kick before he had blown his whistle.

At the other end, Ulrik Laursen wasted a glorious chance to open the scoring when he strode on to Marc Libbra's pass inside the home penalty area but scuffed his shot which bobbled tamely wide.

Tommy Lovenkrands was next to try his luck for the home side but failed to trouble Colgan from 20 yards.

Alan Main conceded a corner when he failed to control a deflected David Zitelli strike on his goalline. But he redeemed himself when Libbra glanced a header towards goal from Latapy's corner which the Saints goalkeeper held at close range.

Lowndes brought a diving stop from Colgan after latching on to a Sylla free-kick which Dallas this time ruled was legal.

The Republic of Ireland goalkeeper then had to slide the ball clear, after Martin McIntosh almost allowed Lowndes to intercept his under-hit back pass.

McBride left the field on a stretcher with what looked like a twisted ankle, giving another of Sandy Clark's youth brigade Marc McCulloch a run.

But the game needed an injection of life as it drifted back towards the wrong side of mediocre.

Main collected a swerving Zitelli free-kick low to his left post, but the next time the temperature was raised was a touchline argument between Clark and Dallas after the Saints boss objected to a decision which had gone against his team.