Dundee 3 Partick Thistle 0
Sofien Moussa scored twice from the spot to give Dundee a vital three points with a 3-0 win over relegation rivals Partick Thistle at Dens Park.
The two sides were just a point apart going into the game, with Thistle hoping to climb off the foot of the Ladbrokes Premiership table for the first time in almost a month.
A win over Motherwell during the week had closed the gap, but it was opened up once again following a comfortable win for Dundee.
It proved a torrid afternoon for Thistle skipper Daniel Devine, who conceded two penalties for Moussa to net his first goals since September while Mark O'Hara was also on target in a convincing performance.
Home manager Neil McCann made his feelings clear after a poor performance during the week that led to defeat at Hearts, and he got the reaction he was after from his players in a positive start.
After almost scoring an early own goal, Devine was tempted into lunging at Moussa inside the area as the hosts broke, and the striker went over before picking himself up and sending the goalkeeper the wrong way from the penalty spot.
Thistle did not look like forcing their way back into the contest, and they were two down just after the half-hour mark following a well worked Dundee move.
Moussa held the ball up well to play in Faissal El Bakhtaoui down the left, and the wide man hit a dangerous ball across the area which Ajay Leitch-Smith could not convert following a superb save from Tomas Cerny - but the ball came out to O'Hara who took a touch and finished well from close-range.
Only then did the visitors begin to pose a threat to the Dee goal, and some of it was self-inflicted as Cammy Kerr failed to deal with a cross and allowed Ryan Edwards a shot which was well blocked, while Miles Storey had two tame efforts.
Alan Archibald made changes at the break but could not affect the game as Dundee controlled the game before grabbing the third goal following a moment Devine will quickly want to forget.
The defender slipped on the edge of his area to give the ball away and while trying to make up for the error brought down Kerr to allow Moussa a second goal from the spot.
O'Hara nearly made it four as he broke from right to left, running across the area before firing a fine effort towards the top corner - only for Cerny to get a strong hand at full stretch as Dundee coasted through the second half to climb out of the bottom two.