St Johnstone produced a stunning attacking performance to take all three points against Hamilton at McDiarmid.
Accies actually made a decent start to the game but they fell behind in the 22nd minute to a great goal by Saints.
Steven MacLean broke down the right before playing an inviting cut-back to the edge of the Hamilton penalty area to the advancing Liam Craig who had come on just seconds before to replace the injured Murray Davidson and the midfielder made no mistake taking the shot in his stride to fire high past Michael McGovern.
Then just three minutes later, St Johnstone doubled their advantage.
Accies’ Darian MacKinnon handled a high ball in his own box with referee Andrew Dallas pointing to the spot.
MacLean stepped up and confidently sent the penalty into the back of the net.
Then, in the 42nd minute, Saints scored a superbly-crafted third.
David Wotherspoon played an incisive pass to Michael O’Halloran down the right and he hit a great ball across the face of the Hamilton goal for MacLean to net his second from close range.
The striker then made it a hat-trick and 4-0 for St Johnstone in the 54th minute.
Craig crossed from the left towards Graham Cummins who headed down to MacLean and he made no mistake, gleefully stabbing the ball past the shell-shocked McGovern.
Saints would have been hoping to put the gloss on the result with the added bonus of a clean sheet however Accies put paid to that in the 67th minute when Ali Crawford dinked a cross towards Lucas Tagliapietra who headed high past home keeper Alan Mannus.
For full report, reaction and comment, see Monday’s Courier.