Hamilton 0-4 Hearts
By Clive Lindsay

Calum Elliot scored two and set up another as Hearts hammered Hamilton in a game both sides finished with 10 men.

Elliot opened the scoring after six minutes and David Templeton added the second, both from long range.

After the break, Hearts' Ruben Palazuelos was shown a second yellow card and Martin Canning was sent off.

Kevin Kyle scored from the penalty spot following Canning's foul on Elliot, who minutes later broke clear again to send Accies to a second straight 4-0 loss.

Despite the goals and two dismissals, it was never as stormy a game as the one between the sides in December, when five players and the Hearts masseur, Alan Robson, were sent off during and after that match following an ugly tunnel fracas that later saw both clubs fined.
Ruben Palazuelos is sent off
Palazuelos was sent off for Hearts after the break

But it will come as a bitter blow to Hamilton manager Billy Reid, who had made two changes after the opening-day defeat by Aberdeen, with Joel Thomas making his first start since returning from Colchester.

Brian McQueen, who made his first-team debut as a substitute against the same opponents in February, was in the starting line-up for the first time as David Buchanan and Gary McDonald dropped out.

McQueen was used in a sweeper role behind Martin Canning and Simon Mensing in an adventurous 3-4-3 formation, but Hearts quickly took advantage of uncertainty in the home rearguard.

Ismael Bouzid returned from suspension to partner Marius Zaliukas in central defence, with Darren Barr moving to right back in place of Jason Thomson in the only change for the visitors as Jim Jefferies was again unable to start summer signings Kyle and Stephen Elliott.

With Kyle only fit enough for the bench and Elliott still injured, Elliot continued where he left off last weekend, when he scored Hearts' only goal in an otherwise unconvincing home draw with St Johnstone.

And the former Scotland Under-21 striker picked up the ball 22 yards out before curling a fine, left-footed drive into the far corner.

Hearts were rarely under pressure but were comfortable without posing much of a threat of their own until a catalogue of errors in the Accies defence presented them with a second goal after 24 minutes.

Goalkeeper Tomas Cerny failed in his attempt to head clear a panicky scooped pass-back from Mensing to the edge of the six-yard box.

Canning gathered wide on the right, but his attempt to hoof the ball to the half-way line eventually fell straight at the feet of Templeton, who held off his marker before giving Cerny little chance with his stinging drive from 18 yards.

Jack Ross's nightmare start to his Accies career continued when he was hooked at half-time - a week after conceding two penalties at Pittodrie - with winger Jim McAlister thrown on in place of the former St Mirren wing-back.

It had an immediate galvanising effect on the home side, who had a fair shout for a penalty turned down when Flavio Paixao was felled by Wallace's nudge in the back.

Hearts broke clear as the referee waved away appeals and Stephen Finnie again refused calls for a spot kick as Wallace was himself challenged by McAlister.

Accies were unlucky not to pull a goal back when Flavio Paixao dived to meet a Dougie Imrie cross, but his header from eight yards crashed clear off the underside of the crossbar.

Hearts were forced into a re-organisation after 62 minutes, when Palazuelos' high tackle on Flavio Paixao resulted in a second yellow card for the Spaniard.

Hamilton failed to make headway in the 12 minutes during which they had a man advantage, Canning being sent off after Elliot collapsed in the box after a lung-busting breakaway from the halfway line.

Substitute Kyle blasted the penalty kick into the roof of the net and, five minutes later, Elliot pounced on a mistake by Kyle Wilkie to race clear and stroke the ball in off the far post from 16 yards.

There was still time for Cerny to deny Elliot a hat-trick when he acrobatically turned the striker's powerful 16-yard drive over the crossbar.

Taken from the BBC