Hamilton Academical 2-4 St Johnstone

Cummins heads St Johnstone in front at New Douglas Park

St Johnstone jumped up two places to fourth in the Premiership, having survived an early Hamilton onslaught.

Graham Cummins nodded in a Brian Easton cross before lashing in the rebound from a Michael O'Halloran shot.

David Wotherspoon and O'Halloran then added fine shots from distance to send Saints on their way to a fifth successive away victory.

Accies were denied by some smart goalkeeping until Jesus Garcia Tena scored with a free-kick and penalty.

Those late goals gave the scoreline a more realistic look and the hosts will rue not taking advantage of their strong start.

Hamilton looked as if they were in the mood to avenge the 4-1 loss in Perth in September and they quickly established themselves as the dominant attacking force, with Ali Crawford prominent.

Accies created a flurry of early chances, the best of which fell to Christian Nade only for the striker to be denied by the feet of keeper Alan Mannus, who would follow that with a nimble tip away to deny the same player.

As so often happens, the side on top lost concentration and Hamilton were caught out five minutes before the break as Darnell Fisher and O'Halloran linked to feed Easton and the left-back's accurate cross was nodded in by Cummins for an undeserved lead.

St Johnstone celebrate as Michael O'Halloran makes it 4-0 to the visitors

Soon after the interval Accies were left with it all to do after Saints extended their lead.

O'Halloran cleverly dragged the ball back to create shooting space from 12 yards and drew a wonderful reaction parry from Michael McGovern but the goalkeeper was helpless to prevent Cummins firing the loose ball in from an angle.

It got worse for Hamilton as St Johnstone made the most of their lead to inflict further misery on their hosts.

Wotherspoon had all the time he needed to control and shoot past McGovern for the third and Cummins wasted a golden chance to secure a hat-trick, firing into the body of McGovern.

However, the fourth goal was only delayed by minutes as the impressive O'Halloran hit a 20 yard shot low into the corner on 67 minutes.

Hamilton showed great spirit and kept fighting to claw back the deficit.

Central defender Garcia Tena located the top corner with a free kick from the edge of the box and he found the same corner from 12 yards out after Murray Davidson conceded a penalty with two minutes remaining,