Brown treble blasts Colts through to cup semi-finals

Sean Brown was the hero for Colts with a hat-trick asthe Cumbernauld side joined East Kilbride, East Stirlingshire and Lothian Hutchison Vale in the last four.

Despite fielding a much-changed, makeshift side due to injuries, it took Colts just five minutes to go in front.

A Brown shot away looked to be an easy take for the home keeper, but as he went to ground the ball bobbled over his body into the net.

Colts were adapting to the heavy uneven surface by playing a longer game than usual and were very much on the front foot with Sam George in the Colts goal a virtual spectator.

And in 20 minutes their lead was extended with another bit of good luck when the under-pressure Edinburgh centre-half, attempting to clear his lines, sliced the ball high over his own keeper into the net.

The home side had offered very little by way of clear chances in the first half and Stephen O’Neill and Brown both passed up opportunities to extend the lead.

However Colts continued on the ascemndancy after the break and went three up when, from Jamie Broadfoot’s menacing corner, Jamie Barclay had an effort scrambled off the line, only for the ball to fall to Brown who fired home from close range.

Any aspirations the Uni had of mounting a recovery were put to bed on 70 minutes when the Colts made it four.

Gavin Lachlan found Fraser Sheridan deep in the box and he calmly laid the ball back to Brown to fire in his third to kill the game.

It was pretty much one way traffic at this point with the Colts forcing a number of corners as they reinforced their dominance.

In the later stages the home side to their credit never gave up and continued to seek a consolation forcing a couple of corners of their own; Colts however were in no mood to concede.