FIVE goals, a five-point gap and a clear incentive to turn their upcoming visit to Ibrox on Friday the 13th into the latest Nightmare on Edmiston Drive.

Make no mistake, Hibernian have Rangers in their sights after seeing off Cowdenbeath in comfortable fashion thanks to goals from Paul Hanlon, Jason Cummings, Scott Robertson, Callum Booth and Lewis Stevenson.

Yes, they have played a game more. Thanks to the Glasgow club's continuing involvement in the League Cup, they will have played two games more by the time they travel along the M8 next month.

However, it is not lost on Hanlon that Hibs could well be just a couple of points behind ahead of that February trip and capable of leapfrogging Rangers into second place in the standings by delivering a third successive win over the crumbling League One champions.

"It would be good to get the points in the bag and then it would be Rangers having to make it up in terms of games," he said.

"If you saw the game here at Easter Road (4-0), we ran all over them at times and dominated from first minute to last. We gave them a bit of a doing. It is about doing that in every game now and putting pressure on them."

The home side got off to the perfect start with Cowdenbeath giftwrapping the opening goal in the ninth minute. Scott Allan delivered a corner from the left that the visitors failed to clear despite having plenty of opportunities.

In the end, Liam Fontaine touched the ball on to Hanlon around 10 yards out and his effort, while hardly clinical, sailed high into the roof of the net. From that point onwards, there was only ever going to be one winner with Cummings producing his sixth goal in five games after 25 minutes.

Dylan McGeouch showed some clever footwork before playing a pass to Allan on the right flank. He did well to hit the bye-line and deliver a low cutback that Cummings gleefully directed into the corner from close range.

Hibs might have been expected to pile on the agony for their opponents after that. A five-goal win is hugely laudable, of course, but the truth is they went a little easy on the hapless Fifers.

Other than a Cummings shot saved by Robbie Thomson, there was little to work oneself into a lather over until Robertson made it 3-0 with 16 minutes remaining.

He collected the ball just outside the area and knocked it to Colin Marshall's left while moving to his midfielder's right. He was sharp enough to regain possession on the other side of his opponent, though, and send a lovely low finish past the keeper.

Booth made it 4-0 with his first goal of the season when moving on to a fine ball across goal from Sam Stanton, a second- half replacement for Allan, and producing a crisp and composed finish from 12 yards or so.

Stevenson then wrapped it up all rather nicely. Like Booth, it was his first goal of the campaign and only the third of his Easter Road career.

Liam Craig saw a shot from distance blocked and the full-back, fielded on the right of the defence rather than the left yesterday, took a touch before releasing a low 22-yarder that beat Thomson to his left.

"As a defender, the selfish bit in me comes out and I am delighted more with the clean sheet than anything," said Hibs manager, Alan Stubbs. "That is what we want to build a platform from."

There is nothing good to say about Cowdenbeath, who failed to force a save from home goalkeeper Mark Oxley. At one stage, a section of their 150-strong support implored manager Jimmy Nicholl, to "get to f***".

"You cannot lose games by making it so simple for the opposition to score," Nicholl said.

"The fourth and fifth goals annoy me because there was an acceptance (of defeat) at 3-0."