Dundee United's recent run of fine form continued as they proved too strong for Hearts to move into third place in the Scottish Premiership thanks to another convincing win at Tannadice.
Jackie McNamara's side's have become the form team in the country in recent weeks and carried that on despite the visitors equalising in the first half through Jamie Hamill's penalty after Brian Graham had given the hosts an early lead.
Graham netted his second goal of the afternoon with a header early in the second half before late goals from Gary Mackay-Steven and John Rankin rounded things off in the closing stages.
It was harsh on Hearts, who had battled hard - but United look capable of giving anyone a game on this kind of form.
It was only a matter of minutes before Ryan Gauld was fouled by Hearts midfielder Hamill in an attempt to nullify the United youngster.
In the 14th minute, Gauld had an ambitious attempt to add to the home side's recent scoring spree when he unleashed a 25-yard volley which goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald did well to fist over the bar for a corner.
Two minutes later the home side took the lead. Mackay-Steven worked his magic with a delicate chip which caught the Hearts defence napping as Stuart Armstrong stole in behind them. The Scotland under-21 skipper captain kept his composure as he stuck out a leg to fire towards goal and Graham was on hand to applying the finishing touch from point-blank range.
The home team looked on course for another emphatic home win but they suffered a setback in the 20th minute when the visitors equalised from the penalty spot.
Mark Wilson needlessly fouled Jamie Walker as he made his way into the hosts penalty area, and Hamill sent Radoslaw Cierzniak the wrong way with a well-placed spot-kick.
It was an even enough encounter and the hosts were next to threaten four minutes before the interval when Graham had a chance from Gauld's neat pass - but he shot high over the bar.
United began the second half determined to regain their lead and Rankin's piledriver was tipped wide for a corner by MacDonald.
But the hosts went back in front in the 48th minutes when Mark Wilson's corner was met by Graham who rose unchallenged to power a header past the helpless Jamie MacDonald in the away goal.
That gave the Taysiders a welcome boost and they had another chance just after the hour mark as Armstrong set up Gauld, who rolled the ball onto his weaker right foot but saw his shot deflected wide of the target.
It was all United by this stage and next up was Wilson who burst forward, beating Hearts full-back Kevin McHattie, only to see his shot from distance clear the far post.
A few minutes later, Mackay-Steven went on one of his trademark runs to skip by a number of Hearts challenges before seeing his 20-yard shot go just inches wide.
But with five minutes remaining Mackay-Steven made it 3-1 with a 16-yard curling shot from Gauld's pass which left MacDonald helpless.
Then, with the last kick of the game, Rankin's shot was deflected off Hearts defender Danny Wilson to make it 4-1 and wrap up the rout.
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