Ross County humiliated as they suffer their joint heaviest defeat of the season as Hearts run riot at Tynecastle
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Scottish Premiership
Hearts 6
Ross County 1
Scorers - Hearts: Cochrane (17) Ginnelly (21, 53) Shankland (28, 45, 58) Ross County: Owura (83)
Ross County will go into the split at the bottom of the Premiership after they were blown away and humiliated at Tynecastle by a rampant Heart of Midlothian.
The Staggies were left shellshocked when three goals in the space of 11 minutes through Alex Cochrane, Josh Ginnelly and Lawrence Shankland wrapped up all three points before the half-hour mark.
Shankland's penalty on the stroke of half time made it four for Hearts but they continued to put the foot down on the throttle in the second half.
Ginnelly grabbed his second and Shankland scored his hat-trick to make it 6-0.
Owura Edwards denied Hearts a clean sheet when he converted a penalty seven minutes from time.
The Staggies will be relying on Kilmarnock and Dundee United losing this afternoon to at least ensure they stay one point behind them going into the final five matches to save their Premiership status.
County made two changes to the team that suffered defeat at Aberdeen. David Cancola and Alex Iacovitti in the starting line up with Jack Baldwin and David Cancola both dropped to the bench.
Malky Mackay kept faith with a back three which had served him well in recent matches, but they were left painfully exposed at Tynecastle as Hearts ran riot.
Cochrane put Hearts into the lead after 17 minutes. He was left unchallenged by the County defence to receive a ball from the left wing. He drilled a low drive into the bottom left corner past Ross Laidlaw to put the in front.
Four minutes later the Jam Tarts doubled their advantage when Ginnelly ran on to a long ball from his own half. With only Dylan Smith chasing him in defence, the winger managed to cut inside the teenager in the box, before firing into the top left corner.
The game was over before the half-hour mark, Barrie Mckay's cross into the box was met by Shankland who beat the County defence in the air to nod past Laidlaw.
The Staggies then went four down on the stroke of half time when a VAR check concluded Smith brought down Shankland in the box.
Shankland then grabbed his second of the game from the spot, as Laidlaw guessed right to get a hand on his shot. But it was too powerful to prevent finding the back of the net.
Ross County showed a brief moment of resistence when Jordan White forced a good save from Zander Clark from close range.
But Ginnelly then made it five when he was allowed to fire a low drive from 20-yards out into the bottom left corner.
Just before the hour mark, Yutaro Oda as allowed to charge right into the box and even though his shot didn't find the net, the rebound fell to Lawrence Shankland who fired home.
Ross County at least denied them a clean sheet when they were awarded a penalty that was converted by Owura six minutes from time.
The fixtures for the split will be released after the bottom six has been determined.
Hearts: Clark, Haring (Halliday 75), Shankland (Grant 76), Atkinson (Hill 58), Devlin (Kiomourtzoglou 67), Rowles, Mckay, Cochrane, Sibbick, Ginnelly (Humphreys 66), Oda.
Ross County: Laidlaw, Randall, Cancola (Baldwin 45), Iacovitti, Sims (Watson 67), Loturi, Harmon, Murray (Stones 45), White, Smith (Owura 72), Kenneh (Tillson 67).
Referee: Don Robertson
