Hearts eased to their biggest home win in the Scottish Premiership for three-and-a-half years as they dismantled meek St Mirren 5-0 to remain on the coat-tails of Rangers and Celtic.

The third-placed Jambos dominated from the start and rarely looked in any danger from the moment Laurent Mendy fired them ahead in the 20th minute.

Calvin Miller then notched two penalties, either side of half-time, before further goals from Claudio Braga and Josh McPake ensured a smooth afternoon for Wouter Vrancken’s side ahead of their Conference League opener at home to Nordsjaelland on Thursday.

It was Hearts’ biggest league win at Tynecastle since they defeated Ross County 6-1 under Steven Naismith in April 2023, and they are now comfortably the top scorers in the league. Saints, by contrast, left Edinburgh licking their wounds after a fourth defeat in succession.

Hearts started brightly, with Harry Milne, Miller and McPake – buoyed by making his Scotland debut against Slovenia on Tuesday – all threatening early on.

Saints were offering little, although Killian Phillips tried to catch Beau Reus out with a lob from the centre circle after a misplaced pass from James Wilson.

A minute later Milne went clean through but saw his shot pushed over by Buddies keeper Jacob Chapman.

Hearts made a deserved breakthrough in the 19th minute. Miller floated a free-kick into the box and Mendy got his header all wrong, sending it back the way, but Saints’ Chris Mochrie inadvertently knocked it back to the former Forest Green midfielder, who pounced to lash a powerful finish, on the bounce, high past Chapman from 12 yards out.

The visitors were bedraggled, unable to generate any rhythm, and they fell further behind in the 32nd minute. McPake was tripped by Alex Gogic as he burst into the box, and Miller duly sent Chapman the wrong way from the spot.

Having seen his team outplayed in the first half, McLeish made a triple change for the start of the second half. But the first notable involvement of one of those substitutes, Liam Donnelly, was to give away a penalty for tripping Wilson in the box, and Miller stepped up to convert his second spot-kick in the 50th minute.

Miller turned provider four minutes later as his nicely weighted pass released Braga, who rounded Chapman before slotting home despite the efforts of two Saints defenders to get back and clear.

After Reus made a brilliant save to deny Calvin Ramsay, the outstanding McPake got himself clear in the box to fire past the exposed Chapman from eight yards in the 80th minute.

What the managers said…

Hearts boss Wouter Vrancken:

“From the first session (in the summer), the players liked what we were doing and they tried to make those steps and you see it today that they are trying to do it and succeeding.

“We try to play a kind of football that is positive and constructive and proactive, and not a reaction.

“I think people come to the stadium to see nice football, to see goals from your side.

“Also for the players, we try to play a style of football that, when you were a little boy, when you started playing football on the street, you played football to score goals, not to stay in front of your goal and prevent the goals.

“You want to score goals because this is the nicest feeling you have in football.

“We are trying to play a type of football where we can come in the positions as much as possible to get this feeling. Some days it will work better than other days, but it’s nice to see that it worked well today.

“It’s good for the guys that they have such a game where they felt comfortable on the ball. Also out of possession we were good. Hopefully it gives us more confidence for this run of games.”

St Mirren manager Craig McLeish:

“It’s not good enough from our point of view. We shot ourselves in the foot and gave away two penalties which are avoidable.

“There were individual errors for the other three and that’s not to take anything away from Hearts, who were excellent.

“You can’t come to places like this and expect to play football from the first minute, you have to earn that right. You have to fight and out-run teams and we didn’t do that at points.

“It’s not an excuse but we lost Niko Agrafiotis in the warm-up and he’s a big part of what we’re trying to do. We had to shuffle things around and it didn’t quite happen for us.

“We all have to take responsibility. I have to rectify it.”

What the result means and next fixtures…

Ryan Naderi scored a double as Rangers moved top of the Scottish Premiership with a 3-1 win over Kilmarnock.

The German striker twice headed home in the first half to take his tally for the season to six goals.

Kevin Kelsy was also on target before the break as Rangers leapfrogged Celtic, who will move back top if they get a result at Motherwell on Sunday.

It was a sixth consecutive league win for Rangers, and a seventh overall, but they missed out on a fifth successive clean sheet when Kilmarnock substitute Nicky Clescenco netted on a last-minute counter-attack.

Rangers manager Derek McInnes would have been less than impressed with their second-half performance in general as bottom club Killie passed up a series of chances before finally getting their reward.

The visitors ended the game with six efforts on target to Rangers’ four but home goalkeeper Ivor Pandur was only seriously troubled once before being beaten.

What the managers said…

Rangers manager Derek McInnes:

“The fact we went top of the league, we shouldn’t lose sight of that. There’s a lot of positives, but the performance was disjointed at times.

“I was really pleased with how clinical we were in the first half. We put the ball in the box, we scored goals, we just didn’t do it enough for whatever reason.

“But we have to be honest, for long spells we looked like a team that hadn’t been together for the last three weeks. We spoke about it at half-time, about the need to stay on top of the game.

“Maybe a combination of not putting enough freshness into the team – I was reluctant to change it too much. I already had to change Dujon (Sterling) at half-time, he was feeling a bit under the weather. He’s had a wee bit of tonsillitis.

“I felt that the second half was far from where we needed to be. There’s a bit of understanding for me where the players have been. This break’s been far too long.

“Whoever came up with this idea, it’s such a long time for your players to be away. We pay their wages, we look after our players, and for them to be away for nearly three weeks is too long.

“But we’ve got the job done, and credit the players for digging deep and getting three points.”

Kilmarnock boss Neil McCann:

“I am really frustrated, a wee bit angry as well. We gifted Rangers the 3-0.

“I have a problem with the second goal; I think there was a handball involved in that. I do not even understand the handball (rules) any more.

“Even at 2-0 we had two gilt-edged opportunities and we didn’t hit the target.

“There were a few words said at half-time. I don’t want to walk out of Ibrox with a pat on the back saying ‘you won the second half’. It means nothing.

“The disappointment and frustration comes from how good we were in the second half. We created four, five chances in the second half alone. We could have probably taken something from the game.”

What the result means and next fixtures…

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