Kyogo Furuhashi scored his first goal in eight games as Scottish Premiership champions Celtic returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory over Livingston on Saturday.

The Japan striker opened the scoring from close range 25 seconds into the second half. Liam Scales headed in his first goal of the season soon afterwards.

"I think he's three goals short of where he was last season but for me it's more important for the team," said Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers after Furuhashi's 10th goal of the campaign but only his second in 13 matches.

"But attacking players, their job is to create and score. You could see relief on his face.

"He read it well and it was nice for him to get the goal because he had other chances which didn't quite drop but from the team point of view it's what we needed.

Successive league defeats by Kilmarnock and Hearts -- the first time the Hoops had suffered such a fate in a decade -- had cast a shadow over Celtic's title defence.

But this win restored their five-point lead over Rangers at the top of the table, at least until their Glasgow arch-rivals play one of two games in hand, at Motherwell on Sunday.

Lawrence Shankland continued his scoring spree with both goals in Hearts' 2-0 win over St Mirren as the Edinburgh club moved two points clear in third place.

The Scotland striker was on target in both halves to make it 10 goals in 11 games for the Jambos.

In the other Scottish top-flight match that went ahead Saturday, Kilmarnock beat St Johnstone 2-1 to move into fourth.

The home side made a fine start, with teenage midfielder David Watson's long-distance shot giving Killie a sixth-minute lead before veteran striker Marley Watkins made it 2-0 in the 17th minute.

Saints substitute Nicky Clark reduced the deficit from close range just after the hour but Kilmarnock held on.

Dundee's game against Aberdeen was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch and Ross County's match against Hibernian was called off due to a frozen surface.

Dundee, however, were unhappy that referee David Munro left it until an hour before kick-off to postpone their match because of a waterlogged goalmouth at Dens Park.

The rain soon stopped as forecast and Dundee went on to train on the pitch before issuing a statement apologising to fans for the "very late and unnecessary call-off".