Aberdeen suffered their third SPL defeat in a week as Rangers claimed a 2-0 win at Ibrox, while Hearts beat St Johnstone to go third.
Goals from Kenny Miller and Vladimir Weiss sealed the win, although Miller also missed from the penalty spot.
Hearts turned on the style in the second half to heap more misery on out-of-form St Johnstone with a 2-0 win at McDiarmid Park.
The home team had conceded 10 goals in losing their three previous league games, but looked more resolute against Hearts.
They could not hold out for even a point however as the visitors followed up on their midweek success over Celtic with Kevin Kyle's 65th-minute penalty and Ryan Stevenson's late clincher.
Derek Riordan repaid Colin Calderwood's faith by netting a double to give a Hibernian a 2-1 victory over Motherwell and earn the manager his first home win since taking charge at Easter Road.
Riordan quickly cancelled out Nick Blackman's early penalty before capitalising on a blunder from Stephen Craigan to hit a 27th-minute winner and justify his recall following suspension.
Hibs then showed the resolve to deprive Motherwell of chances to follow up their victory over Rangers with another three Clydesdale Bank Premier League points.
Dundee United and Kilmarnock shared the spoils in an entertaining 1-1 draw at Tannadice.
The visitors opened the scoring after 22 minutes when Conor Sammon latched on to Mehdi Taouil's clever pass and smashed the ball low past Dusan Pernis in the United goal.
However Peter Houston's men got back on level terms within a minute when Johnny Russell prodded the ball past Bell for his second goal for the club.
Adam Rooney's double helped Inverness come from behind to win 3-1 at Hamilton and extend their near year-long record of remaining undefeated in away league action.
The forward netted twice in 10 early second-half minutes, with a Jonny Hayes goal sandwiched in between, to claim victory in the encounter at New Douglas Park.
It was Hamilton who had taken a deserved lead on 29 minutes when Dougie Imrie produced an excellent finish against his old team, but the bottom side had no answer to Inverness' swift and comprehensive second-half response which leaves Accies still searching for their first home win of the season.
