Hamilton 5 Motherwell 0

Hamilton surpassed their 4-0 away victory over Motherwell as Ian Baraclough was brought crashing back down to earth following wins in his first two games as Motherwell manager.

First-half goals from Dougie Imrie and Ali Crawford at New Douglas Park sent Accies on their way to another Lanarkshire derby destruction.

And strikes from the Scottish Premiership's two top scorers, Mickael Antoine-Curier and Tony Andreu, and substitute Danny Redmond, secured a 5-0 win for Alex Neil's side, who moved three points behind champions Celtic.

The scoreline could have been even more embarrassing for Motherwell as Hamilton missed at least as many opportunities as they took, while the visitors lacked any cutting edge as they failed to build on narrow wins over St Mirren and Partick Thistle.

Hamilton had won 4-0 at Fir Park in late September, days after knocking their local rivals out of the League Cup, and another heavy win was on the cards from early on in the New Year's Day clash, which was played in a torrential downpour.

Accies imposed themselves on their neighbours from the start and Mikey Devlin had a header cleared off the line following a corner before Antoine-Curier headed over from the follow-up cross.

Motherwell lost Simon Ramsden to injury in the eighth minute, Lee Erwin coming on, and they suffered another blow seconds later when they gifted Accies the lead.

Craig Reid took a poor touch 10 yards inside his own half and Tony Andreu punished him by setting Imrie clear with one touch. The wide man ran in on goal and drilled a left-footed shot inside Dan Twardzik's near post.

Henrik Ojamaa had a couple of promising runs, but Motherwell were otherwise lacking any direction or accuracy in their passing and Andreu twice threatened from long range, failing to get hold of his first effort following a poor kick-out from Twardzik before forcing the Motherwell goalkeeper into a flying save.

Andreu was involved again as Hamilton went two up in the 29th minute.

The Frenchman's measured shot was stopped by Twardzik after Imrie's cutback, but Crawford was the first to react to blast the ball high into the net from inside the six-yard box.

Crawford then set up Andreu for a decent effort before playing Antoine-Curier in either side of the break, but the striker shot over from 18 yards before half-time and then hit the base of a post in the second half.

Motherwell, who had Chris Cadden on for Hammell at half-time, launched some decent moves down the right but could not get a shot in and Antoine-Curier, twice, and Crawford missed half-chances before they extended their lead in the 64th minute.

Crawford again set up Antoine-Curier and the centre-forward got the break of the ball after an attempted shot before taking the ball round Twardzik and blasting into an empty net.

Lionel Ainsworth missed a great chance to give Motherwell a lifeline seconds later following a mix-up in the home defence and Accies emulated their Fir Park haul in the 69th minute.

Crawford was again the provider, somehow emerging with the ball from a two against two in the corner before cutting it back for Andreu to sweep into the far corner for his 12th league goal of the season.

Andreu and Crawford came close again before Redmond converted from close range after the visiting defence missed several chances to deal with fellow sub Eamonn Brophy's cross from the right.