GARY Oliver admits he had an off-day in front of goal against Beith — and has joked that he’d need to bag a HAT-TRICK to make up for it.

The frontman was thwarted by juniors stopper Stephen Grindlay on a number of occasions during Ton’s impressive 6-0 Scottish Cup third round rout on Saturday

He accepts that on another day he could have notched a treble, and is now looking forward to getting back on the scoresheet as soon as possible.

Oliver told the Tele: “On another day against Beith, I score a hat-trick.

“The goalie made a few decent saves from me, but as I say, on another day I put them away and I get two or three goals.

“But as long as you win, it doesn’t really matter.

“Of course, I need to try and get back to my scoring ways, so a hat-trick [this weekend against Dunfermline] will square me up, I think!”

On a more serious note, Oliver has today paid tribute to his team-mates for helping him and strike partner Jai Quitongo out this term.

He says manager Jim Duffy asked for goals from every area on the pitch at the beginning of the season and the squad has delivered the goods.

The former Queen of the South man continued: “A few of us have five or six goals now.

“There’s myself and Forbesy, and Thomas O’Ware has eight!

“We’re all chipping in from every angle, and that’s what you want.

“The gaffer said that at the start of the season, that he wants everyone chipping in with goals.

“It takes the pressure off the strikers a wee bit.

“If there’s no goals going in, everybody automatically looks at the strikers, so it’s very helpful for everyone.

“It’s been brilliant.”

The 21-year-old says he was happy with a professional performance from his side against the Ayrshire junior outfit at the weekend after a slightly uncertain start.

He feels that early goals from Forbes and fellow midfielder Michael Tidser were crucial, as they settled a few Ton nerves.

Oliver said: “For the first 10 minutes I actually thought we were going to be in for a hard game.

“They had a few corners, a few shots and I did think we were going to be in for a tough afternoon.

“But we got our early goals through Ross and Michael and that settled us down a wee bit.

“An early goal settles the nerves, gives you the confidence to play, so it’s good to get an early goal in a game like that.

“We got playing our game and it was an easy job from there.”