A breathtaking Hampden performance saw the Diamonds put five past beleaguered Queen’s Park to further close the gap at the foot of the Championship table.

Doubles from Mason Hancock and Ricco Diack set Airdrie well on the way to victory before substitute Chris Mochrie finished off an outstanding team goal on a glorious night at the national stadium.

With the managerless hosts still licking their wounds from Sunday’s 5-0 SPFL Trust Trophy final defeat to Livingston, Rhys McCabe had the luxury of an extra few days of recovery time for his side, and took full advantage.

The manager himself dropped out of the side which had started at Falkirk, alongside the injured Ben Wilson. Diack and Liam McStravick were the replacements, and both looked lively from the off as the Diamonds took the game to their hosts.

Diack teed Lewis McGrattan up on seven minutes, but the midfielder couldn’t get enough behind his shot to trouble Calum Ferrie.

Queen’s Park’s first chance came on the breakaway from an Airdrie corner, but with the Spiders attacking outnumbering the recovering defenders, the chance was squandered with a simple square pass played straight to Dylan MacDonald.

A tenth-minute Airdrie corner saw Ferrie saving well from Adam Frizzell, who followed up with an outstanding delivery to the head of Mason Hancock, who powered home from close range to open the scoring.

Alex Bannon was enjoying the return to his old stomping ground, snuffing out a 13th-minute Rudden chance before setting up a counter for Hancock and Diack.

The defender failed to connect with an overhead kick from the resultant corner, but Airdrie’s pressure was relentless as Diack burst through to draw another save from Ferrie on 17 minutes.

A couple of bad tackles in midfield saw yellow cards as the hosts’ frustrations threatened to boil over, but Airdrie retaliated through more slick passing play, Diack firing over from McStravick’s 21st-minute flick.

Three minutes later the striker had his goal, and it was an inch-perfect free-kick straight from the manager’s playbook which found the net, Diack’s 25-yard strike clearing the defensive wall and leaving Ferrie with no chance.

Queens best chance of the first half fell to Aiden McGinlay, who shanked over the bar from outside the box just after the half-hour mark.

Five minutes later McGrattan was unlucky to see his strike deflected behind after a storming run from Bannon, whose defensive partner Aidan Wilson proved unpassable on 42 minutes as a good move led to a dangerous Queen’s Park cross.

A minute before the break Airdrie unpicked the home defence again, Hancock’s intercepted pass breaking for McStravick. Spotting that the defender had continued his run, the Northern Irish forward threaded a perfectly-weighted pass through. A shuffle of Hancock’s feet took Ferrie out of the equation, and the Englishman was left with an empty net to fire into.

Three half-time substitutions gave the Southsiders a lift after the break, but it wasn’t long before Airdrie’s swagger was back, Gallagher sending in a smart 50th-minute effort which Ferrie did well to hold.

Eight minutes later Diack joined Hancock on a brace, a rapid breakaway from sub Chris Mochrie leaving him one on one with Ferrie. While the Spiders captain got something on the Airdrie midfielder’s attempted lob, Diack had matched the run and swept home to make it 4-0.

Mochrie had a decent penalty shout waved away on 63 minutes, with Ferrie keeping out a deflected Dean McMaster strike a minute later.

A rare involvement for Cade Melrose saw the Diamonds keeper save at the feet of Reece Evans as the youngster marched towards his first clean sheet for the club.

The goal of the night came on 71 minutes, Frizzell’s drive and determination taking his side up the park aided and abetted by McStravick and Rhys Armstrong. When the Diamonds skipper threaded a pass to substitute Lewis McGregor inside the box, a sublime backheel flick teed up Mochrie to slam home a simply outstanding fifth goal.

While the scoring was done for the night, there was still work for Melrose to do with a couple of good punches and some solid defending keeping the home side at bay in the last fifteen.

A late effort by Mochrie was gathered by Ferrie, and referee Don Robertson called time on a brilliant performance.

Dunfermline’s win over Livingston means that Hamilton Academical are once again the team in Airdrie’s sights, with the gap to ninth-place narrowed to five points ahead of Saturday’s home match against Partick Thistle.