“This is the best place to be in Lanarkshire right now,” roared the tannoy announcer prior to kick-off at Fir Park. The good folk at the Castlebank Horticulture Centre, who were hosting their autumn open day at the weekend, may have argued against that bold statement.

Of course, trying to plough on through Lanarkshire these days is a bit of a fankle what with all those ruddy roadworks on the M74 but, to paraphrase an old blundering bletheration, you could say they were dancing in the streets of the Raith Interchange after this. Louis Moult’s four goal salvo in this local derby, which included a devastating 13-minute hat-trick in the first half, had Motherwell cruising along in a lively, entertaining tussle.

Ryan Bowman had won the penalty which spawned Motherwell’s fourth early in the second period but there was no way he was going to be able to take it. Moult got the opportunity to complete a rare quartet of goals and he made no mistake. It was quite a show from Moult and with Bowman and Scott McDonald also adding to the attacking menace, Motherwell seem to have quite a cutting edge.

“If we play like that every week especially at home we can beat anyone; Rangers, Celtic whoever,” declared Bowman. “We won’t be afraid of anyone. Anything is possible.”

It was almost mission impossible for Hamilton as the visitors from the other side of the motorway found themselves three goals behind after just 21 minutes. To their credit, they settled themselves down, got themselves organised and started to claw their way back into proceedings. Ali Crawford’s neatly executed goal on 36 minutes gave them a glimmer of hope and if his curling free-kick just before the break had sneaked in instead of rattling the post, then who knows what the outcome would have been.

The next goal was always going to be crucial and Motherwell got it within five minutes of the resumption just when a galvanised Hamilton were establishing quite a sturdy foothold in the game.

“Everyone saw how good he (Moult) is and what he’s capable of,” added Bowman. “I played against him a few times in the Conference but I never saw anything like that. You can see his quality and he’s brilliant to play alongside.”

The Moult and McDonald axis was a profitable one for Motherwell last season but the addition of Bowman to the scene has made for a tasty trinity.

“I thought myself that I’d have to be patient,” said the 24-year-old Cumbrian, who was a summer singing from Gateshead. “But the three of us played off each other very well. We ran off defenders and held up play to bring other players in. It showed that it worked. The good thing about being a three is that if you are not on it, there are two other players who can chip in with a goal.”

While Moult was masterful, Hamilton’s Crawford delivered a brace of fine goals as Hamilton tried to salvage something from the debris of their calamitous opening. “It’s hard losing one goal to start with let alone three,” he said. “We effectively started the game 3-0 down. We were chasing it. The turning point is when my free kick hits the post. If that goes in it’s 3-2, it’s game on. We go in at 3-1, they come out and score straight away which kills our momentum. I’m not saying we’d have got anything out of the game but we weren’t good enough today.”

Crawford was at a loss to explain why Hamilton started so sluggishly. “Maybe you could do the team talk,” he said with a wry smile when a press man suggested that a local derby should have been enough to get players geed up from the first whistle. “Motherwell started on the front foot and scored early doors. We just didn’t compete. They got to 3-0 and they deserved to be three up. We didn’t start at all. It’s something we need to improve on for next week. We are creating chances though and that’s always a positive.”

For the Hamilton players, Fir Park wasn’t the best place to be in Lanarkshire on Saturday.