Hearts hammer Dundee to go nine points clear at top of Scottish Premiership

Hearts smashed Dundee 4-0 on Saturday to move nine points clear of reigning champions Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

Goals from Lawrence Shankland and Landry Kabore in the space of seven first-half minutes put the hosts 2-0 up by the interval.

Kabore added his second before substitute Tomas Magnusson bagged his first goal for the club.

Hearts, held by St Mirren in midweek, took advantage of second-placed Celtic's involvement in Sunday's League Cup semifinal against Rangers.

Derek McInnes's team remain undefeated in 11 league games after the first quarter of the Premiership season, while back-to-back defeats leave Dundee second-bottom of the pile.

"A few weeks ago we set a challenge to the players, 'Can we be above Celtic before we play them?' And then 'Can we be top of the league after the first round of fixtures?'" said McInnes

"We've boxed off that little section now and we need to go again for the start of the next round.

"It's a good reference point for me in the sense of what can be done, and there are some difficult fixtures among that, some difficult challenges, and I feel as though the squad's getting stronger."

The home side opened the scoring in the 31st minute when Harry Milne sent a great ball into the box for Shankland to drill into the bottom right corner for his 10th goal of the season.

They doubled their lead in the 38th minute when Milne's corner from the left bounced around the box and fell to Kabore, who slammed into the net from close range to open his account for the club.

Kabore put Hearts 3-0 up in the 56th minute and substitute Magnusson made it four late on.

Celtic, under new manager Martin O'Neill following the shock departure of Brendan Rodgers, remain the bookies' favourites to win the Scottish Premiership.

But Hearts are in pole position to end the Celtic-Rangers domination of Scottish football.

No team outside the Glasgow giants have won the Scottish Premiership since Aberdeen in 1985.