There was no place for on-loan Aussie starlet Garang Kuol as Hearts stretched their unbeaten run to eight games in the Scottish Premiership.

Newcastle United's Kuol, who made his debut for the Edinburgh club in their 1-0 weekend win over St Mirren, did not feature but two of his Socceroos teammates did as Hearts eased to a comfortable 5-0 win over Aberdeen courtesy of a four-goal first-half blitz.

Josh Ginnelly notched a double, while Michael Smith and Lawrence Shankland were also on target before the break, before Australia international Cameron Devlin made it five just after the hour to seal the Jambos' biggest top-flight victory in seven years.

Fellow Socceroo Kye Rowles, who this week signed a new five-year deal with the Edinburgh outfit, played the full 90 minutes, while Nathaniel Atkinson was on the bench.

The result took Hearts seven points clear of fourth-placed Livingston.

Ange Postecoglou's Celtic consolidated top spot in the league thanks to a 4-0 win at home to a St Mirren side featuring Socceroo Keanu Baccus.

Kyogo Furuhashi scored twice and Liel Abada and David Turnbull also found the net for the Bhoys.

"Our football was really good and the goals were outstanding," Postecoglou said.

"It was a really strong all-round performance."

Rangers, Celtic's closest challengers, remain nine points adrift of the leaders despite winning 3-2 at 10-man Kilmarnock.

Rangers fell behind early but two goals from Alfredo Morelos and another from Ryan Kent gave them a 3-1 buffer.

Kilmarnock had Daniel Armstrong dismissed on the hour, before scoring late through Joe Wright to give Rangers a nervous last few minutes.

- with PA