While boss John Sheran insisted he'd settle for his players giving a performance of which they could be proud whatever the outcome, they'd undoubtedly have dreamt of the club's 1975 exploits when Les Barr's goal gave them victory at the quarter-final stage.

Sadly for Sheran and his troops – but to the delight of those 5000 Hibs fans who turned up to watch this mis-match – any such notions the Third Division outfit may have nurtured lasted exactly 52 seconds.

By that point Stephen Dobbie, making his first start since his summer switch from Rangers, had fired Hibs ahead, taking Garry O'Connor's knock-down in his stride to blast a first-time shot across the startled Michael Hankinson and into the far corner of the net to spark a nine-goal rout.

The goalkeeper did well to block further shots from Ian Murray and Dobbie but he was rather like Canute trying to turn back the tide which eventually swamped him and his team-mates.

O'Connor made it two in the 18th minute as he powered home a header from Stephen Glass' corner; Dobbie added a third 11 minutes later as he latched on to a through ball from Tam McManus and completed his hat-trick in the 31st minute from the penalty spot after he'd been hauled down by Hankinson.

Four goals before the interval was rich reward for Hibs' determination to keep the game at a high tempo, a fact which pleased boss Bobby Williamson, who was almost guilty of understating affairs when he said: "We started well."

Dobbie was withdrawn five minutes after the interval, his night's work done but there was to be no respite for unfortunate Montrose as his replacement, Derek Riordan, should have done better than fire the ball into the side-netting with his first touch after he latched onto a wayward pass-back from Stuart Ferguson. It was perhaps understandable if the game hit a bit of a lull thereafter but, as the part-timers began to tire, the floodgates opened once more as Hibs added five more goals to wrap up their biggest win since their 11-2 hammering of Alloa Athletic in the same competition 38 years before.

A terrific burst from the back by Steven Whittaker saw O'Connor roll the ball through for Ian Murray whose shot went in off the far post before Montrose's Steven Kerrigan hammered a cutback from the Hibs skipper into his own net, beating a queue of green-and-white shirts behind him to claim the honour.

Riordan floated a delicate chip, which grazed the outstretched fingertips of Hankinson, into the net from 18 yards; O'Connor lashed home the eighth before Hibs went Route One for the ninth, goalkeeper Daniel Andersson launching a massive clearance downfield for Scott Brown to race in and apply the necessary finish.

All this with four minutes left to play had the Hibs fans looking for double figures only for the sound of Kevin Toner's whistle to bring Montrose's suffering to a merciful end before the inevitable tenth could be added.

Williamson said: "We scored a lot of good goals but I was a bit disappointed we didn't put the ball into the back of the net more regularly as we had chances."

But realising he could be sounding a bit churlish, the Hibs boss quickly added: "I can't complain, we've scored nine."

"It was a job well done, very professional and my biggest as a manager. We'd been told all week about Montrose's win in 1975 and we didn't want that again."

Hibs: Andersson, Orman, Edge, Murdock, Doumbe (Whittaker 46) Murray, McManus (Scott Brown 69) Brebner, O'Connor, Dobbie (Riordan 50) Glass



Montrose: Hankinson, Donnachie, Ferguson, McQuillan, Simpson, Greig, Smith (Sharp 34) Gibson (Brash 50) Farnan, Michie, Kerrigan, Black.