Cove Rangers boss Jim McIntyre was delighted at his squad’s professionalism as they eased into the fourth round of the Scottish Cup by comfortably seeing off the challenge of West of Scotland outfit Dunipace at Balmoral Stadium.
Striker Gerry McDonagh highlighted his prowess in front of goal by finding the back of the net on four occasions.
McIntyre said: “These type of games can pose you a lot of problems if your attitude and is not spot on.
“We approached the game in the right manner, we did our homework on them but if we play with that type of tempo then we should be winning the game.
“It’s been a brilliant run by Dunipace to get to this stage and well done to them.
“We spoke about if we could get early goals and get comfortably ahead in the game then we ccould make some changes.
“We’ve got important league games coming up so that allows us to get prepared for them.
“Gerry getting four goals is exactly what you’re looking for your strikers to do.
“He’s done brilliant today to get the four goals and it was nice to see a couple of the subs coming on and getting goals as well.”
In terms of the draw for the next round, the Cove Rangers bosshas no preferences. “I don’t care who we are drawn against next, obviously you always want to get drawn at home if at all possible but what will be will be.”
McDonagh’s first half double, the opener after a fumble by visiting keeper David Kane and the second after Mitch Megginson’s effort had come off the post, gave the Championship side daylight between themselves and their opponents at the break.
The striker wasted no time in completing his hat-trick two minutes after the restart with Luis Longstaff providing the assist. McDonagh added his fourth shortly afterwards, heading home a Shay Logan cross.
Substitute Leighton McIntosh made it five with eight minutes remaining, firing home from a Fraser Fyvie pass.
Fyvie made it six with an excellent finish before providing the corner for substitute Jamie Masson to head home and complete the scoring.
Dunipace manager Danny Smith said: “We always knew the size of the task for us and all credit to Cove, they’re a very good outfit.
“As I said to the players before the game, today the score doesn’t matter for us, for us it was all about the experience.
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— Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) November 26, 2022
“We’ve got a lot of young lads in that dressing room and it’s a huge step up to play against a Championship side so, in all honesty, I’d have liked to have scored and kept their tally down to four or five.
“But I’m not too disheartened and neither are the group and nor should they be. For us getting to the third round of the Scottish Cup is a great achievement.
“It could be down to fitness levels in the end and I felt conditions could have favoured us today but Cove were relentless and fair play to them.”
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