St Johnstone assistant-manager Alex Cleland thinks the in-form side are benefiting from a defensive determination and a surplus of attacking options.
The McDiarmid Park side registered an impressive fifth consecutive victory, coupled with a fifth successive clean sheet that earned goalkeeper Zander Clark a club record, with a comprehensive triumph against Hamilton.
First-half goals from Murray Davidson and a Ziggy Gordon own goal ensured the winning streak would continue and gloss was added to the result with second-half strikes from Matt Kennedy and David Wotherspoon.
It has been a remarkable turnaround for the Perth outfit since they were hammered 6-0 from Celtic last month and Cleland insists the revival is built on encouraging foundations.
He said: “The competition for places is high at the moment and if we can keep that going then we’ll be delighted.
“Matty Kennedy is getting better and better, and he’s now added goals to his game.
“He can play many positions for us and his form at the moment is great. Hopefully he can keep it up.
“The first time Drey Wright got at Ziggy Gordon we got a goal off it.
“We do encourage our wide players to be positive and go at full-backs and get us crosses and get us goals.
“They’ve certainly added to that this season, going forward.
“Drey gives us good options, as well as Matty does, and we’ve got Danny Swanson to come back and Stefan Scougall can play there.
“We’ve got really good options in the wide areas, so competition is high.”
Davidson earned Saints the breakthrough after 19 minutes when he pounced as Accies keeper Gary Woods could only parry a Wright cross.
Wright then found the net via Gordon’s shoulder as the home side continued their total dominance.
The interval was no sanctuary for Hamilton, who found themselves three behind eight minutes into the second-half as Kennedy slipped Wotherspoon’s through ball under Woods.
The pair combined 20 minutes later for the fourth, as Kennedy seized on Delphin Tshiembe’s slack back pass to centre for Wotherspoon to hammer home.
It was a fifth defeat in seven games for Hamilton, whose meek performance bemused manager Martin Canning.
He said: “I say it all the time, in this league the team that competes the hardest will usually win the game or give themselves a good chance of winning the game.
“But if one team is bang at it and the other is half a yard off it then that team will win the game, and that’s what’s happened.”
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