A HAT-TRICK from Republic of Ireland international striker Anthony Stokes helped Celtic join Rangers in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup as they overcame a stubborn Peterhead 3-0 at Balmoor.
Celtic had struggled to break down a well-organised Peterhead defence before Stokes slotted the ball home eight minutes before the break.
Georgios Samaras latched onto Paddy McCourt’s diagonal pass and the Greek picked out the unmarked Stokes, who had the easiest of finishes.
Stokes had the ball in the net again either side of half-time but on both occasions he was adjudged to have been offside.
The Irishman finally got his second when he drilled home low on 57 minutes after linking up with Emilio Izaguirre, and he completed his hat-trick with seven minutes remaining, calmly finishing after being found in space.
Elsewhere, Salim Kerkar claimed his first competitive goal for Rangers as they cruised to a 4-0 win over Arbroath. An own-goal by Craig Wedderburn was sandwiched between strikes from David Healy and Nikica Jelavic before Kerkar sealed the win.
Rangers crashed to defeat to Falkirk in the League Cup earlier in the season but ensured there would be no shocks against their Second Division opponents on this occasion.
