MORTON ran riot on Saturday as Stewart Kean bagged a hat-trick to fire his side to a 7-1 victory over Stranraer.

The gulf in class was evident throughout and the Ton underlined their dominance with further goals from Graeme Holmes, Kevin Kelbie and a Peter Weatherson double to book their place in the second round of the Co-operative Insurance Cup.

Three-goal hero Kean had passed up a series of chances against Dumbarton in the Challenge Cup last Sunday but made no mistake with the opportunities that fell his way at Stair Park.

And Ton boss Allan Moore was thrilled to see him score his first goals in Ton colours. Moore, left, said: "I'm glad he managed to get off the mark as I'd seen some of the websites saying he was useless, so he's answered back today.

"He took his goals very well, and I'm pleased for him as he's a confidence player and didn't have the best of seasons at Queens last year.

"To score three in any game is great - hopefully he can continue that against Stirling Albion next week." Kean added: "I'm delighted with my hat-trick. It's great to get away to a good start with a few goals.

"There was a few games there in which we didn't score, but this is the kind of game you can get a few goals to start the season and take that in to our game next Saturday." There were indications of the impending rout as early as the seventh minute when Kevin McKinlay strode on to the ball 35 yards from goal and crashed a shot against the inside of Ryan Marshall's right-hand post, but the ball rebounded to safety.

Colin Stewart clutched Michael Moore's glancing header in the 14th minute and then pulled off a stunning save two minutes later when he flew to his right to push Danny Mitchell's powerful strike around the post.

However, this ten-minute spell was Stranraer's only period of sustained possession during the 90 minutes and Morton quickly regained the upper hand.

Kean opened the scoring in the 27th minute with a placed shot across Marshall after he had outmuscled Lee Sharp to get on the end of Michael Tidser's through ball.

It was 2-0 three minutes later as Carlo Monti fed the overlapping Tidser, who crossed to the back post where Holmes had arrived right on cue to slam under Marshall.

The first half finished with a flurry of bookings as Stranraer captain Mitchell was shown a yellow card for a cynical pull on Tidser, while Moore and Kean were both cautioned for a tussle at a corner.

Morton extended their lead five minutes after the restart when Kean met a Monti cross with a controlled volley which inched beyond Marshall's despairing dive and into the net.

Kean claimed the match ball in the 54th minute by smashing home from seven yards after Grant Gallagher's misplaced pass had put his team in all sorts of trouble.

But the four-goal lead lasted less than 60 seconds, as Stuart McColm cut in from the left before sending a curling right-footed effort beyond Stewart to pull one back.

But this failed to unsettle the Ton and substitute David O'Brien, who made an impressive contribution after his introduction, created the fifth goal when he jinked past Gallagher and cut back to Weatherson, who took a touch before calmly placing the ball past the motionless Marshall.

In the 76th minute, Marc Smyth's precise long ball sent Weatherson through on goal and the Englishman nonchalantly lifted the ball over Marshall to score the goal of the game.

Substitute Kelbie completed the scoring when he stooped to head home David MacGregor's near-post cross seven minutes from time.

Stranraer boss Keith Knox said: "It was a bad day at the office, but we won't come up against teams like Morton every week."