Maroon memories: Hearts quick to do Well and stay top

RAMPANT Hearts stayed top of the Premier Division table thanks to a devastating opening burst against Motherwell.

For the second game running, the Jambos set up their victory with a three-goal salvo in the first half.

It was Hearts' fifth league win on the trot – four of which were away from home.

As expected, Hearts kept the same starting line-up from the previous weekend's 3-0 win over Kilmarnock, though there was one change on the bench, where John Robertson, who had missed out at Rugby Park with a groin injury, came in for Austrian ace Thomas Flogel.

Hearts took just six minutes to score and, to the delight of a massive travelling support, the Jambos took just seven more minutes to add to their tally.

The opening goal was scored by Colin Cameron, who was a benefactor of some brilliant, not to mention unselfish, play from Frenchman Stephane Adam.

The former Metz striker latched on to a pass from skipper Neil Pointon on the left-hand side of the box before turning inside to create room for a shot. Instead, however, Adam slipped an inch-perfect pass into the path of Cameron, who placed his shot from 12 yards into the right-hand corner.

But Adam got a goal of his own in the 13th minute. After getting the break of the ball near the centre circle, Jim Hamilton looked up to see his strike partner haring through the middle and slipped a superb pass between Brian Martin and Greig Denham. Despite appeals from the Motherwell players, Adam was clearly onside and he strode forward to the edge of the box before slipping a shot past Stevie Woods.

In the 20th minute, Hamilton, once again, held the ball up well inside the box before slipping a pass inside to Neil McCann, who got to the ball before a defender to prod it past a bemused Woods.

On the stroke of half-time, Motherwell were given a lifeline when they pulled one back when David Weir was adjudged to have tripped Eliphas Shivute in the box and Tommy Coyne scored from the spot.

Within seconds of the restart, Hearts had Gilles Rousset to thank for retaining a two-goal cushion.

Micky Weir's corner from the right fell to Coyne on the edge of the six-yard box but keeper Rousset was off his line in a flash to claw the striker's shot away.

It was Motherwell who were now doing most of the attacking and, in 53 minutes, the Frenchman again had to show clean handling as he collected a cross-shot from Coyle which would have dropped in at the back post.

After running the show in the middle of the park in the first half, Hearts had suddenly dropped out of the game in that department and, on the occasions they managed to stretch Motherwell at the back, a poor final ball let them down. However, in the 70th minute, the Jambos made it 4-1.

Cameron robbed Simo Valakari near the centre circle before surging forward.

Steve Fulton, who had supported his run, was available to the midfielder's left but, instead, Cameron opted to play the ball to Hamilton on the other side – and it proved the right decision. The big striker coolly stepped around Woods before hammering a right-foot shot into the empty net.

Motherwell: Woods, May, McMillan, Valakari, Martin, Denham, Weir, Shivute, Coyne, Falconer, Coyle.

Hearts: Rousset, McManus, Pointon, Weir, Salvatori, Ritchie, McCann, Fulton, Hamilton, Cameron, Adam.