GLASGOW: Dutch striker Genero Zeefuik plundered a four-minute first-half hat-trick as runaway Scottish Championship leaders Hearts annihilated 10-man Cowdenbeath 10-0 at Tynecastle on Saturday.
Zeefuik broke the deadlock with a 26th-minute penalty and added a second with a low shot before completing his treble with another penalty after Lewis Toshney was sent off for fouling Sam Nicholson.
Zeefuik's treble arrived in just three minutes and 36 seconds and took his tally to eight goals in seven games since his arrival on loan from FC Groningen.
A 20-yard Nicholson shot and a Jamie Walker strike made it 5-0 before the interval, before Hearts scored their third penalty of the game in the 57th minute through Morgaro Gomis, who had been brought down by Thomas O'Brien.
Alim Ozturk got on the score-sheet with a 25-yard effort four minutes later and Danny Wilson tucked home an eighth goal before a late brace from substitute Osman Sow took Hearts into double figures.
"I was really pleased with the way we started the game," Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson told the club website.
"We had to be patient for the first 25 minutes. We knew they'd come in and sit in and make it difficult, with a 3-4-2-1, which is a difficult system to break down.
"But we're very lucky we got the first goal and then Genero scored three goals in three minutes, which totally changed the game. They got a man sent off and we played really well from there."
It was some way short of Hearts' record win -- a 21-0 demolition of Anchor in 1880 -- but the margin of defeat equalled Cowdenbeath's heaviest previous loss, an 11-1 defeat by Clyde in 1951.
Neilson's side remain 20 points clear of second-place Hibernian in the second tier, while Cowdenbeath -- who now have a goal difference of -45 -- stay second-bottom.
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