Richie Foran hat-trick helps Inverness ease past Elgin

A Richie Foran hat-trick helped Inverness Caledonian Thistle to a 3-0 win against Elgin City at Borough Briggs.

The SPL side were always in command and took the lead before half-time through an acrobatic effort from Irishman Foran.

Foran got his second and third with a quick-fire second-half double as a raft of substitutions broke up the play. One of those players coming on was Alex Cooper, son of Neale, who was keen to impress having recently been released by Liverpool.

Falkirk comfortably beat Paul Hartley's Alloa Athletic 4-2 at Recreation Park. Both sides fielded a large collection of trialists as they looked to strengthen before the start of their league campaigns.

An Armand One own-goal gave Falkirk a 29th-minute lead, which was quickly doubled by Kallum Higginbotham. French-Algerian trialist Farida El-Alaquin got Falkirk's third in the 39th minute after being played in by Kieran Duffie.

In the second half Alloa came back into it and a 35-yard strike by Iranian Pedram Ardallany reduced their arrears. Falkirk's fourth goal came from a more familiar name in Tam McManus, before Graeme Holmes finished off the scoring 13 minutes from time.

Partick Thistle came a cropper at Croft Park, going down 2-0 to Conference North side Blyth Spartans. The home side had the better of a typical pre-season friendly with changes galore and plenty of trialists on show. The Northumbrian side took a second-half lead through Shaun Vipond and completed the scoring near the end from the penalty spot, Phil Cave scoring after a foul by Johnny Lindsay.

Montrose defeated higher division opposition at Links Park, overcoming Davie Irons' Stenhousemuir 2-0. Martin Boyle got the opener in 15 minutes after calmly rounding Chris McCluskey, then trialist Scott Johnston made it 2-0 when he pounced on a mistake by Jake Hamilton.

South of Scotland side Threave Rovers snatched a late draw with Annan Athletic at Meadow Park. Sean Milligan did not know much about the opener for the home side as the ball deflected off him and into the net, but Annan hit back through David Cox and Graeme Bell before a late Sam Warren penalty levelled for Threave.