By Ronnie Esplin, PA Sport

Hearts celebrated 120 years at Tynecastle with a comfortable 4-0 home win over Dunfermline in the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

First-half goals by Michal Pospisil, Roman Bednar and Saulius Mikoliunas gave the rampant Jambos a convincing interval lead which was the least they deserved for an impressive opening 45 minutes.

The hapless Pars never looked like recovering from their first-half nightmare but restricted the home side to just one more goal by substitute Juho Makela with minutes remaining.

To add to the Fifers' misery, youngster Greg Ross was then given a straight red card for a robust challenge on man of the match Bruno Aguiar.

The second-placed Jambos maintained their three-point lead over Rangers with the chase for the Champions League spot still looking set to go all the way to the end of the season. But the Gorgie side will not pick up three easier points again in this campaign.

It had been 16 years since the Fifers had recorded a victory in Gorgie and the recent form of the third-bottom Pars was hardly conducive to a shock win over the Tennent's Scottish Cup finalists.

That statistic was never in danger, however, and surely Tynecastle had not witnessed such a one-sided first 45 minutes in its 120-year history .

A full house watched the Edinburgh side lay siege to the Dunfermline goal straight from the first whistle.

There were only 16 seconds gone when midfielder Deividas Cesnauskis moved forward and drilled a 25-yard shot just past Allan McGregor's right-hand post.

A minute later Mikoliunas' right-footed effort from distance had the Pars keeper diving to his right to pull off a fine save.

And in the sixth minute the home side took an unsurprising lead. A long throw from the right by defender Robbie Neilson evaded McGregor inside the six-yard box and Pospisil had the easiest of tasks to knock the back in from close range.

Then in the 14th minute the home side double their lead and again Neilson was the architect.

This time a cross from the right from the Scotland Future player was met by Bednar who looped a header from 12 yards over the helpless Pars keeper and into the net at the far post.

Even at this early stage in the game the points looked secure for Hearts, a notion which was strengthened in the 25th minute when the Tynecastle men scored a third.

Remarkably, Neilson was involved again, the right-back laying a short pass back to Mikoliunas inside the Fifers' penalty area.

The Lithuanian drove a decent angled shot from 16 yards but this time McGregor looked at fault as the ball sped past his right foot and into the corner of the net.

The stunned visitors seemed helpless to do anything about their dire situation and only a good block by McGregor prevented Bednar scoring the fourth in the 31st minute with a close-range volley.

Just before the interval Hearts keeper Craig Gordon was tested for the first time but he easily handled Mark Burchill's drive from distance.

In contrast to their whirlwind start to the match, the Edinburgh men were more restrained after the break, playing themselves back into the game with some caution.

In the 50th minute some neat footwork by defender Takis Fyssas in beating the cumbersome Andy Tod on the left hand side gave the home fans something to applaud although there was no end product from the Greek's cut-back.

Slowly the home side began to warm to the task again, moving the ball around with confidence and Aguiar's powerful low drive from the edge of the Pars' penalty area slipped past McGregor's right-hand post.

Dunfermline again found themselves on the back foot although Tod's close-range header from a Scott Muirhead corner on the hour mark just cleared the crossbar.

Tynecastle became increasingly muted as the fans looked to their side to lift the tempo of the game again but it appeared the Edinburgh side, perhaps understandably, were finding it difficult to replicate their first-half form.

The Gorgie men were back in cruise control which encouraged Dunfermline to edge forward but the scoreline never really looked like changing.

However, in the 82nd minute Jambos substitute Makela, on for Pospisil, added a fourth when he headed home Aguiar's cross from the left.

In the 87th minute Dunfermline youngster Ross was given a straight red card for his challenge on Aguiar. It was a miserable end to a miserable day for the visitors.

Teams

Hearts Gordon, Neilson, Pressley, Goncalves, Fyssas,Mikoliunas (Beslija 66), Aguiar, Hartley (Brellier 69),Cesnauskis, Bednar, Pospisil (Makela 58).

Subs Not Used: Banks, Webster, Tall, Driver.

Goals: Pospisil 7, Bednar 14, Mikoliunas 25, Makela 82.

Dunfermline McGregor, Scott Wilson, Tod, Shields, Labonte,Thomson, McCunnie, Ross, Muirhead, Burchill (Phinn 88),Hunt (Tarachulski 66).

Subs Not Used: Halliwell, Iain Campbell, Daquin, Camano,

Andy Campbell.

Sent Off: Ross (87).

Booked: Tarachulski.

Att: 16,973

Ref: C Richmond (Scotland).

Taken from sportinglife.com