HEARTS’ form continues to undulate like the tide but on a good day there are few teams in Scotland who can live with them. This was one of those days.

It will take more than one thumping win over relegation-threatened Hamilton Accies for Ian Cathro to win over the sceptics but this was the sort of performance and result that will at least buy the Hearts manager a bit of time. On the back of five matches without a victory, this served as a much-needed restorative tonic and nobody who witnessed it could say it wasn’t deserved.

Hearts were thoroughly dominant throughout and, after an incredible opening period where they created and missed chance after chance, once they belatedly made the breakthrough late on it was simply a matter of how many they would go on to score. In the end they added three more after the break but looked so in control of the contest they could have gone into the closing stages with just a single-goal advantage and not been crippled by any pangs of anxiety. A Tynecastle crowd, who haven’t been slow to voice their frustration at matches, purred their approval.

“The most pleasing aspect was the character and the calmness of the team in the first half because we were playing well, we were dominant, and there was good football, there was attacks and lots of good saves,” said Cathro. “It could have reached a point in the moment that we’re in that we start to feel stressed, start to feel that anxiety, and tension starts to build. But it didn’t, we stayed strong, stayed calm and we dealt with it every well.”

Hamilton have not won away from home in the league all season and there was little chance of them leaving Tynecastle with anything more than deep regret given their impotence in attack and porousness at the back. Manager Martin Canning did not spare his players in his post-match assessment.

“I don’t think we played well, that’s probably our poorest performance of the season,” he said. “At the moment we don’t look like creating opportunities which is disappointing. Our two strikers aren’t doing enough to retain possession up the park and get us out. And in the middle of the park we lost the battle.”

Accies’ defence had leaked like a sieve at Ibrox in their previous match and they were no more watertight here as Hearts pounded them from the off, both aerially and along the ground. It was something of a minor miracle, then, that Hamilton went up the tunnel at half time having only conceded the once and that coming deep into injury time.

The narrowness of the scoreline was down solely to Gary Woods who made seven saves in the opening 45 minutes ranging from the spectacular to the rather fortunate. The goalkeeper will argue that he probably deserved that bit of luck given his efforts, even if he was finally beaten by an Arnaud Djoum shot after some penalty box pinball late in the half just when it had begun to look as if this might not be Hearts’ day. Of the earlier chances, one stop from an Ismael Goncalves header was particularly impressive, while Jamie Walker, Sam Nicholson, and Alexandros Tzolis were also thwarted by the goalkeeper.

Accies could have no complaints about falling behind given Hearts’ superiority. In response they offered up only one first-half chance of note, an Eamonn Brophy shot that was deflected for a corner, while an Ali Crawford free kick after 72 minutes registered as their first shot on goal.

By that time they were already three goals down and heading for another heavy loss. Hearts’ second goal after 55 minutes had a touch of the bizarre about it. Woods, having single-handedly kept his team in it in the first half, elected to pick up a pass back giving Hearts an indirect free kick in line with the penalty spot. Don Cowie rolled the ball to Goncalves who thrashed his shot high into the net.

“I heard a whistle from the crowd and we’ve all stopped,” explained Canning. “Woodsy thought it was a free-kick and went to roll the ball back to them but it wasn’t the referee’s whistle that’s gone. The way our luck’s going at the moment, they then stick it in the top corner.”

That ended any lingering doubts over the result but Hearts went on to garnish their performance with two more goals. The third was the best of the lot, Walker getting to his feet after being tripped by Ioannis Skondras to arc an inch-perfect free kick beyond Woods and into the top corner. Accies’ misery was rounded off in the 88th minute, Malaury Martin beating the goalkeeper at his near post with a dipping free kick.