Five star Airdrie ease into Scottish Cup fifth round with emphatic win over Dumbarton

A five-star display from Airdrie saw them progress into the fifth round of the Scottish Cup following an emphatic 5-1 away win at Dumbarton.

The visitors got off to the perfect start when Lewis McGrattan and Gavin Gallagher found the net inside the opening 10 minutes but it wasn't until the latter stages of the second half that the Diamonds were able to put the game to bed.

They didn't have things all their own way in the early stages, however, as both Mason Hancock and Gallagher were forced off through injury inside the opening half-hour.

A quick-fire double on 74 and 75 minutes from Chris Mochrie and Ben Wilson made it 4-0 before Craig Watson added a fifth with a back post header.

Dumbarton did bag themselves a fine consolation strike through Craig McGuffie with what proved to be the final kick of the ball.

Airdrie boss Rhys McCabe made two changes to the line-up from their midweek defeat to Livingston, dropping himself to the bench while Lewis Strapp missed out. In came Sam Graham and McGrattan.

The Diamonds won a thriller at the same ground in a League Cup tie in July - netting twice in the last six minutes to win 4-3 - but it was an altogether more comfortable afternoon this time around against the League One basement boys.

McGrattan dinked them into a fourth minute lead when A free-flowing move ended in the midfielder being sent through on goal with the Airdrie man beating the onrushing debutant Owen Hayward in the Dumbarton goal to open the scoring.

In a blistering start to the game, the Diamonds could have found themselves back on level terms only to then squander a glorious chance to double their lead moments later. Kieran Wright had to be at full stretch to get a fingertip on Cammy Clark's fizzing long-range