Hearts 2, Hamilton 0

Midfield duo Prince Bauben and Arnaud Djoum both struck for Hearts in their 2-0 win over Hamilton as Robbie Neilson's men moved to within three points of Premiership leaders Celtic.

The Hoops can re-establish their six-point advantage by beating Ross County in Dingwall tomorrow.

But the Jambos did their best to turn the heat up on Ronny Deila's men in the wake of Thursday's Europa League nightmare against Molde by comfortably seeing off Accies at Tynecastle.

Bauben fired the Gorgie side in front just before the half-hour mark with a precision strike, while Djoum was left with an easy finish seven minutes before the break after composed work by striker Osman Sow.

Victory means Hearts remain a point ahead of Aberdeen but Hamilton cling on to their top-six slot despite notching up their fifth straight match without a win.

The Jambos made two changes to the side which put four past Partick Thistle last week as skipper Margaro Gomis returned alongside Blazej Augustyn.

Accies player/boss Martin Canning, though, was even more ruthless as he responded to his team's 4-2 humbling by St Johnstone with five changes.

As well as leaving out himself, Christian Nade and Louis Longridge were both benched while injury and suspension counted out Ali Crawford and Grant Gillespie as Chris Turner, Lucas Tagliapietra, Greg Docherty, Carlton Moris and Darian MacKinnon came in to start.

But even those alterations failed to improve the visitor's prospects as Hearts ended the opening half two goals up having barely got out of second gear.

Their first goal arrived 27 minutes in as Turner's failure to clear the ball when he had the chance just outside his box came back to haunt the Northern Irish midfielder.

Hearts worked the ball wide and with Hamilton scrambling to get back into shape, Jordan McGhee teed up Bauben to rifle a superb low strike past Michael McGovern at his near post from 25 yards out.

The second came along 11 minutes later and again Canning's team were culpable. Sam Nicholson was left free to cross from the left-hand side while Sow had so much room at the back post he was able to control the ball in the six-yard box.

Keeper McGovern leapt from his line but Swede Sow remained calm, wriggling past two challenges before squaring for Djoum to prod into the empty net.

The hosts did have to deal with a couple of near misses, though. Accies defender Tagliapietra headed one chance wide while Neil Alexander was alert to another of the big Brazilian's attempts as he got down low to save to his right.

Hearts strolled through the second half but despite creating decent openings for Callum Paterson, Sow and Igor Rossi, Hamilton suffered no further damage.