Gala Fairydean Rovers 6

Lossiemouth 0

David Knox

at Netherdale

A LATE injury to striker Josh Morris opened the door for Hibernian teenager Ruari Paton to net a hat-trick in his first ever Scottish Cup match.

The 18-year-old, who arrived at Netherdale on loan from Hibernian earlier this month, was due to start the clash with Lossiemouth on the bench.

But the Dublin-born goal-machine, who signed on at Easter Road on his 16th birthday, took his opportunity by bagging a brace inside the opening ten minutes.

And only a bizarre refereeing decision denied him another before finally scoring his third in the closing stages.

Fairydean Rovers manager Dean Shanks told us: “Ruari has just come in and has already shown that he has plenty quality.

“Josh failed a fitness test so we gave Ruari the nod and he did really well, but this was an overall good team performance.

“I don’t think we were at our very best but we still scored six goals and kept a clean sheet.

“The target was to be in the second round draw and we’ve done that so I’m happy.”

The only real scare to Gala’s smooth progression came in the second minute as Jack McCarthur’s cross landed on Patrick Martin’s crossbar.

But the general pattern of the game soon unfolded with the Fairydean Rovers setting up stream after stream of attacks.

Paton’s first goal arrived in the seventh minute as he steered a terrific Tommy Patterson into the net at the back post.

Just two minutes later the Easter Road teenager raced onto a through ball to show great composure in scoring the second with a low shot.

Lossiemouth’s young team rallied well to stifle the threat for the next 20 minutes or so, but they were undone yet again approaching the interval as Patterson cut in from the left to side-foot past Stewart Black.

Sean McKirdy blasted inches over with the goal at his mercy on the stroke of half time.

And just a couple of minutes into the second half Patterson shaved the post with a curling freekick.

Paton thought he’d scored his hat-trick in the 56th minute after substitute keeper Trevor Dear dropped a Dale Baxter cross and he poked the loose ball into the net, but referee Alastair Grieve bizarrely awarded a foul.

Paton did score his third in the 74th minute after rounding Dear to slot home at the near post.

And just two minutes later McKirdy made up for his earlier miss with a darting run and cool finish to make it 5-0.

A mix-up between Dear and one of his defenders led to an indirect freekick for the hosts from 12 yards in the first minute of injury time – and Baxter blasted Patterson’s lay-off into the far corner to make it 6-0.

Gala Fairydean Rovers. P Martin, K Ainslie (C Watson 85), S Main, R Miller, K Watson, S Cunningham (S Connaghan 63), D Baxter, S McKirdy, C O’Reilly, R Paton (K Mitchell 78) & T Patterson.