A FRESH flicker of hope that relegation could be avoided was given to Airdrie United just two hours before last night's visit to face Hamilton Accies.

However, it didn't even take that long for their hosts to extinguish it.

News that Dunfermline Athletic's 15-point deduction had plunged them into ninth place in the first division table, just eight points above Jimmy Boyle's side with five games remaining, should have been enough on its own to ignite some fire in the bellies of the Airdrie manager's lot. On the evidence of last night's 5-0 hammering, indigestion was the only thing stirring inside any of his bedraggled bunch, with the drop now virtually a certainty.

"We'll not catch anyone playing like that," admitted Boyle, whose side face the arduous task of hosting Partick Thistle on Saturday. "I keep on defending the players and telling them that I believe in them, but it's difficult when the turn in performances like that. It's embarrassing."

He's not wrong. In truth, the scoreline flattered the visitors, who were helpless in preventing Hamilton's Stevie May racking up a hat-trick, taking his tally for the season to 19 in the process. The on-loan St Johnstone forward was rampant as Boyle's hapless bunch were outmuscled, outran and outplayed by the 20-year-old. It took just nine minutes for him to knock any wind of optimism from Airdrie's sails as he calmly slotted low into the net from the spot after Steven Hetherington upended Grant Gillespie. May's second, following Jon McShane ending a fine flowing move on 22 minutes, came just before the break as he latched on to a long ball over the top of the Airdrie defence to rifle a powerful right-foot half volley into the net. The fact that it took him until the 74th-minute to grab his hat-trick, a calm side-footed shot from just inside the area, will remain a mystery.

His departure on 81 minutes didn't signal the end of the scoring, however, with replacement 17-year-old Eamonn Brophy still having enough time to fire home a goal on his debut with just seconds remaining.

Billy Reid, the ex-Accies manager who stepped down earlier this month, watched on from the stand as his former charges turned in a performance beyond their years in one of the most one-sided derbies since the Real Madrid tiddlywinks team challenged Messi and Co to a game of five-a-sides.

"I thought we were great, we were at the top of our game and for the first 45 minutes is probably the best I've seen us play," said Alex Neil, the Hamilton interim manager, who watched Mikey Devlin receive a second booking with just a few minutes remaining. "I'm still a player here and I want to play, but I'm not sure I'll get back into the team if they're playing like that."