FALKIRK somehow kept their place at the summit, but had to rely on late goals elsewhere to preserve their position.
A 1-1 draw at home to bottom club Morton, in which they missed a penalty, looked insufficient with closest rivals Dundee and Hamilton both leading late on.
But neither could hold onto their leads and the top three clubs all had to be content to share the spoils.
Falkirk should have taken the lead six minutes from half-time, but Rory Loy missed from the spot for the second successive week, with keeper Derek Gaston also blocking his follow-up.
Dougie Imrie combined well with Garry O'Connor to put the Greenock side ahead on the stroke of half-time, but Falkirk stretched their unbeaten league record when Mark Millar equalised after a second penalty award midway through the second half.
A goal - and another from the penalty spot - by Ryan Conroy after 69 minutes looked enough to give Dundee victory against Alloa Athletic on former manager Barry Smith's return to Dens Park.
But Smith was to finish the happier boss after Ben Gordon struck deep into injury-time to give Alloa a draw.
Dundee should have killed the game off before then with Martin Boyle guilty of some tame finishing, but Alloa also had their moments and Dan Twardzik had decent saves in the first half from Stephen Simmons and Ross McCord.
Hamilton's chance to go top was ruined by some poor defending as they shared a 3-3 draw with Dumbarton at New Douglas Park. James Keatings put the home side ahead early on, but Jordan Kirkpatrick equalised before half-time when he was left unattended at the back post.
Hamilton then fell behind in the second half when Andy Graham applied the final touch to a free kick.
Keatings equalised and Jason Scotland put them in front with a finish from close range, but the home celebrations had barely died down when Chris Kane headed an equaliser with just a couple of minutes left.
Queen of the South moved into the top four with a 2-1 win at Livingston. The home side took the lead when Mark Burchill was adjudged to have been fouled by Chris Mitchell as the striker leapt to meet a Mike Mampaya cross. Marc McNulty dispatched the penalty.
Mark Durnan equalised after the break when he headed in Michael Paton's deep cross and substitute Derek Lyle pounced on a rebound to score the winning goal for Queen of the South.
At Central Park, Kane Hemmings scored the only goal of the Fife derby as Cowdenbeath beat Raith Rovers 1-0.
The game did not come alive until the second half, but Hemmings looked the most likely player to break the deadlock.
He tested Ross Laidlaw in the only first-half effort worthy of note and his pace troubled Raith all afternoon.
The only goal came after 70 minutes when Hemmings scored with a diving header.
It gave Cowdenbeath their first home win in the league since October 19 and ended a six-match losing sequence for them at Central Park.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article