St Mirren 1 Hibernian 4: James Keatings the hat-trick hero as Hibs keep up the heat on Rangers

In fairness, the margin of victory was more than a reflection of the flow of the game. Indeed, Hibs could easily have won by more with substitute Islam Feruz blazing a late effort over the crossbar when sent through one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Hibs passed the ball well, in general, and look like a team bristling with confidence. Twelve wins and one draw in your last 13 wins do that. This is a side building up a serious head of steam.

The same cannot be said of St Mirren. The return of former manager Alex Miller to the club to work as assistant to Ian Murray was nowhere near enough to prevent a third straight defeat. This is a team whose faint hopes of making the end-of-season play-offs are fading by the week.

Relegation looks much more of a possibility. It seems fair to say they are already in something of a dogfight at the bottom end of the table.

The odd thing is that St Mirren actually started this match well and had got themselves in front within eight minutes.

A corner from Stevie Mallan made its way through a number of players to Kelly at the far side of the area and his first-time effort beat goalkeeper Mark Oxley to his right.

This was a day in which Hibs answered a number of questions, though, and their response to Kelly’s opening goal was quick and deadly.

With just 10 minutes on the clock, Liam Henderson played a ball into Cummings around 15 yards out and he struck a first-time effort past Jamie Langfield and into the net for his seventh goal in seven games.

St Mirren continued to force the issue for a while, at least, with Scott Agnew having a crisp effort parried by Oxley and then sending a speculative effort over the crossbar from distance after moving onto a clearance from Paul Hanlon.

Their hopes of taking some badly-needed points from this encounter began to fade with seven minutes of the first half remaining, though, when the visitors, slowly beginning to get the game in a choke-hold, went 2-1 in front.

What a beautifully-worked goal it was too. Henderson reacted quickly to the referee’s whistle when playing a quick free-kick from just inside opposition territory and caught St Mirren. His reverse pass allowed Keatings to peel away from his man to pick the ball up on the left-hand side of the area and his low diagonal finish found the corner of the net.

Langfield had to spring into action to deny Dominique Malonga moments later, but Hibs, now rampant, would not be denied and went in 3-1 up at the interval thanks to Keatings’ second goal of the game.

A slick passing move saw the ball find the former Hearts player at the edge of the area and his curling effort beat Langfield high to his right.

John McGinn almost made it four in the dying seconds of the opening period when hitting the crossbar after moving onto an astute lay-off from Henderson and Cummings must still wonder how he managed to put the ball over the bar from two yards on the hour-mark after moving onto a low cross from Keatings.

Kelly cleared a low shot from Malonga off the line midway through the second 45 and St Mirren’s last hope of making a game of it died shortly afterwards when a deflected shot from substitute Lawrence Shankland cannoned off the inside of Oxley’s right hand post. The rebound fell to Cameron Howieson, but the Hibs keeper had recovered in time to block his drive.

Hibs were awarded a penalty on 77 minutes when Henderson was adjudged to have been upended in the box by Howieson and Keatings sent Langfield the wrong way from the penalty spot to complete the rout.

St Mirren (4-4-2): Langfield; Stewart, Baird, Webster, Kelly; Mallan, Goodwin, Agnew (Howieson 57), McMullan (Morgan 70); Thompson, Gallagher (Shankland 57).

Booked: Kelly (76).

Hibernian (4-3-3): Oxley; Gray, McGregor, Hanlon, Stevenson; Henderson, Fyvie, McGinn; Keatings (Feruz 82), Cummings (Boyle 70), Malonga (Fontaine 79).

Booked: Stevenson (52).

Referee: Andrew Dallas.

Attendance: 4503.