Morton 0-3 Queen of the South

Jan 20 2008 Kenny Macdonald Reports

SUPERSUB Stephen Dobbie came off the bench to bury Ton with a sizzling hat-trick to mark his new deal at Palmerston in style.

The ex-Hibs hitman struck three times in 18 minutes to fire the Doonhamers to victory.

Queens nearly went ahead in the opening minute when striker Sean O'Connor let rip from 15 yards. But his powerful low shot took a deflection to spin inches past the post.

However, Morton dominated the rest of the first half and squandered a string of chances to go ahead.

Jim McAlister created the first in the seventh minute, cutting the ball back from the left for Jamie Stevenson to crack a low shot towards the bottom corner of the net. But Queens keeper Jamie MacDonald dived to claw the ball beyond the far post.

McAlister set up another chance in the 12th minute when his diagonal ball caught out the Queens defence and landed at the feet of Iain Russell. But the striker slashed his shot past.

Six minutes later Ton wasted another good chance when Chris Millar elected to cross rather than shoot after being set up by skipper Peter Weatherson.

Then McAlister fired in a shot from 25 yards that flew past the left-hand post.

After the interval Morton continued to dominate and on 53 minutes Millar sped down the right but fired a cross too far in front of his team-mates.

McAlister then produced some neat skills to lift the ball over Queens skipper Jim Thomson inside the box. But as the winger prepared to shoot Thomson recovered brilliantly to block his effort.

However, Queens rallied and Dobbie put them ahead with a wonder goal in 66 minutes - just a minute after replacing John Stewart.

He waltzed past two defenders on the right of the box before drilling a low shot past keeper David McGurn and into the left corner of the net.

Dobbie smashed in a superb second in 73 minutes when he was allowed to run unchallenged at the Ton defence before letting rip with a low 25-yarder that sizzled into the bottom right-hand corner with McGurn at full-stretch.

And he completed his hat-trick with a close-range header from six yards with six minutes to go, following a cross from Eric Paton.

MoM: Dobbie (Queens).