The weekend results will have caused some anxiety among fans of Dundee and Aberdeen.
Granted, they both had to travel to face title contenders on Saturday but their defeats, combined with wins for St Mirren and Kilmarnock, have tightened things up significantly.
Five points now span what looks like a four-way fight to avoid the relegation play-off against a Championship side, with Livingston 12 points adrift at the bottom.
Aberdeen visit St Mirren next – taking new manager Stephen Robinson back to the club he just left – then host Hibernian. Tough?
Dundee are at home to Celtic after the international break, then visit Kilmarnock before the split. Tougher?
St Mirren’s last game before the split is against Celtic in Glasgow, while Kilmarnock visit Hibs before that trip to Dundee. Also not easy.
And there is one other layer to this, too.
Whether it is United or Falkirk, there will be an imbalance of fixtures as four of the bottom six will have had one more home game and two will have played one more away.
That will result in at least one team making a third trip to a particular ground this season, a potentially difficult poser for the SPFL given what is at stake.
