Motherwell bounced back from their Scottish Cup exit by continuing their impressive Scottish Premiership form with a thumping defeat of St Mirren in Paisley.
The visitors moved within 10 points of leaders Hearts courtesy of a comprehensive victory that punished errors from the hapless 10-man hosts.
Motherwell opened the scoring after 13 minutes, Elijah Just finding a finishing touch after a raft of chances for the visitors.
After successive crosses from both sides had been cleared by the St Mirren defence, the New Zealand winger cut inside and fired in a low shot that curled away from Shamal George and into the far corner of the net.
The visitors didn't let up with their energetic attack and got further reward after half an hour when Tawanda Maswanhise won and then scored a penalty.
The prolific forward had taken a heavy touch when getting on the end of a Just through ball and George missed the ball but brought down the striker. Maswanhise made no mistake from the spot, calmly slotting past the St Mirren goalkeeper.
Things almost got even worse for the hosts when defender Alex Gogic was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Callum Slattery, but Video Assistant Referee Nick Walsh invited match official Calum Scott to review his decision and he downgraded the punishment to a yellow.
Stephen Robinson made a triple change at the break to try to turn things around, but Motherwell picked up where they left off and soon had a third when Ibrahim Said's drive took a deflection and squirmed under George.
St Mirren were reduced to 10 men when Richard King was dismissed for an off-the-ball incident with Slattery and Motherwell then scored a fourth when Emmanuel Longelo lashed in from a narrow angle.
The visitors got a fifth in the 66th minute when substitute Eythor Bjorgolfsson fired in an acrobatic volley that George couldn't stop.
St Mirren's relegation fears increase but Motherwell continue to look up after another impressive showing.
