St Mirren 4-0 Kelty Hearts: Top-flight hosts cruise into last eight
- Published
Alex Greive opened the scoring for the hosts this afternoon
Jordan Jones scored a stunning strike as St Mirren avoided a Scottish Cup upset with a convincing victory over League 2 leaders Kelty Hearts.
New Zealand forward Alex Greive nodded the hosts in front after Kelty spurned a great chance.
Jones scored his first St Mirren goal with a whipped effort after the interval before setting up Greg Kiltie to net from the edge of the box.
Kiltie added his second late on as the hosts strolled into the last eight.
Kevin Thomson's side, who knocked out holders St Johnstone in the previous round, had chances but were overwhelmed and it is St Mirren in the hat for Monday's draw.
Kelty threatened to take an early lead when Kallum Higginbotham danced to the byeline with quick feet and cut the ball back for fellow winger Joe Cardle, who tried one too many touches, allowing St Mirren to block his close-range effort.
Spurred into life, the Premiership hosts made the breakthrough.
Marcus Fraser swung in a cross, fellow full-back Richard Tait attempted an acrobatic effort that was saved well, but Greive was in the perfect position to nod home from close range.
After the interval, Jones doubled the lead as he opened his St Mirren account in spectacular fashion. After drifting towards the box from the left touchline, he checked on to his right foot and arced a magnificent effort into the top corner.
Jones then turned provider for his midfield counterpart, driving towards the edge of the box then laying the ball into the path of Kiltie, who turned and fired into the bottom corner.
Kelty's misery was compounded when Robbie McNab played a blind pass across his own box, allowing Kiltie to calmly slot home his second into an empty net.
Man of the match - Jordan Jones
Jones scored a spectacular goal and assisted Kiltie for the third in a game where the winger shone
What they said
St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin: "I think professionalism is probably the word you could use to describe the performance.
"We never underestimated Kelty, and gave them the same respect we'd give any Premiership team in our analysis. I'm pretty sure a number of people would have looked at this as a potential banana skin.
"From start to finish we were excellent, we weren't sloppy in possession and the second 45 was really, really good from us with lots of attacking play."
Kelty Hearts manager Kevin Thomson: "We were beaten by a good team but the harsh reality is we had a big chance with Joe [Cardle] at 0-0.
"I thought the first goal was criminal on our part and then we've worked all week to keep Jordan Jones on his left foot and he cuts inside and puts one in the net which burst our bubble a wee bit.
"Unfortunately for us, I felt we underachieved a wee bit today."