Hibernian 4-0 Elgin City: Premiership side ease through
- Published
Hibernian's Stephen Mallan scored from the penalty spot in the first half
Daryl Horgan scored twice as Hibernian swept aside League Two Elgin City to reach the last 16 of the Scottish Cup.
The home side dominated from the start, and debutant Ryan Gauld was pivotal in helping Florian Kamberi score the opener.
Kamberi though would fail to add to his tally, with Elgin goalkeeper Ian McHale thwarting his penalty.
Stephen Mallan made no mistake with his spot kick, though, while Horgan scored either side of half-time.
Gauld, on loan at Easter Road from Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon, took just 20 minutes to make a positive impact in his first game for Neil Lennon's side.
The midfielder threaded a delightful ball through to Kamberi, who rounded the goalkeeper to give the Premiership side the lead.
And Hibs continued to show their quality when they made it 2-0 just five minutes later when Horgan got his head to a Vykintas Slivka cross.
Kamberi was given the opportunity of getting his second goal when Steven Whittaker was fouled inside the box, but McHale was equal to his effort.
The Swiss striker earned his side another spot kick right on half-time, and this time Mallan made no mistake.
Elgin City had more possession in the final third after the interval and looked threatening, including a shot inside the box from Rabin Omar that was just wide.
But Whittaker caught them on the break on the right-hand side and drilled in a cross for Horgan to latch on to and get his second and Hibs' fourth.
Hibernian assistant manager Gary Parker: "It was a nice game to get through, we needed to get through and we kept and a clean sheet and scored four goals. I'm happy with the performance.
"The main objective was to get through and we've done that. We could have scored more goals but we didn't. We'll take what we got, we can't argue really, 4-0 and we're into the next round."
Elgin City manager Gavin Francis: "It was tough. It was always going to be a tough ask for our players against a really good full-time side.
"I thought we battled away and improved as the game went on, unfortunately we lost the third goal at a really bad time. That kind-of killed the game for us in terms of getting anything out of it."