Thornton ruthlessly went for the jugular in this demolition of Albion who, to their credit, still tried to play football right up to the final whistle.

The visitors found themselves a goal down before even the first minute had elapsed. Stuart Thomson brought down Mathew Gay as the Hibs burst upfield straight from kick-off. Gay played the resultant free-kick to Andrew Adam who made space for himself before shooting low into the net.

For the next wee while, the Hibs appeared to over elaborate and they were almost made to pay for this faffing when Thomson came close to making amends for his first minute faux pas with a shot from the edge of the area that went narrowly wide. Normal service was resumed though when Garry Thomson made it 2-0 in the 34th minute and this gave Albion a real mountain to climb.
 
Forfar got the second-half off to the worst possible start by conceding another three goals by the time 50 minutes were on the clock. First up, Garry Thomson hit a brilliant free-kick and then Ross Morgan shot home from 8 yards. Morgan followed this up with an absolute thunderbolt from 20 yards and although Josh Gorton did well to get a hand to the ball, the Hibs’ striker had struck the ball with such venom that it still managed to make it over the line.

Thornton were reduced to ten men in the 61st minute when Willie Clark clattered his opponent and from the free-kick taken by Declan Milne, Stuart Thomson brilliantly hooked the ball into the Hibs’ goal to reduce the deficit to four.

Not for long though as Mathew Gay rifled a low shot into the net five minutes later. Within sixty seconds, Daniel McNab’s terrific curling effort from the angle made it 7-1 and three minutes later Gay’s corner-kick went straight into the net.

Then it happened. Ian Shanks – in his 65th appearance for the Hibs - finally got his first goal in a green and white jersey when he headed home from five yards. Deep into stoppage time, Mathew Florence pole-axed McNab in the area and Ross Morgan stepped up to complete both the scoring and his hat-trick.
 
Window Store Hibs’ Man of the Match – Ross Morgan
 
Forfar Albion: Gorton, Ferrar, Mutch, Florence, Cormack, Thomson, Milne, Godfrey, Reid, McLeod, Black. Subs: Watson, Shaw, Milligan.
 
Referee: Mr M. Gill
 
Match statistics:
Attempts at goal - TH 27 FA 5
Attempts on target - TH 17 FA 1
Corners - TH 14 FA 4
Fouls committed - TH 6 FA 13
Yellow Cards - TH 1 FA 1
Red Cards - TH 1 FA 0