Matthew Shevlin the hat-trick hero as Cup holders Coleraine march on

Matthew Shevlin fired a hat-trick with Conor McKendry, James McLaughlin and Jamie Glackin also on target for the rampant Bannsiders.

The hosts came out of the blocks quickly with Conor McKendry teeing up Shevlin on four minutes, but the striker’s effort trickled wide of the target.

The Bannsiders top scorer redeemed himself a minute later as he combined with McKendry again, but this time found the net.

The wideman floated a glorious ball into Shevlin’s path, who produced an exquisite finish to beat Conor Mitchell.

McKendry then tried to get in on the act, but Mitchell did well to beat his effort away.

Stephen Lowry then looked certain to make it 2-0 but he failed to connect with a corner in front of goal with a couple of shouts for a penalty for a push on the midfielder.

The visitors should have levelled things up eight minutes before the break when Stewart Hutchinson picked out the unmarked Thomas Maguire, but he fired over.

The Bannsiders responded with McKendry and Josh Carson both firing wide from outside the box.

Warrenpoint hopes suffered a huge blow as the game moved towards the break as Gavin Peers was shown a second yellow after bringing down Eoin Bradley.

And the visitors’ woes were compounded minutes later as the influential McKendry doubled his side’s lead with a fantastic finish past Mitchell after weaving past several defenders.

The Bannsiders almost had a third three minutes after the restart but Bradley glanced McKendry’s cross wide.

It was only a temporary reprieve for Barry Gray’s men though as Aaron Traynor crossed for Shevlin to head home his second of the game on 56 minutes.

Remarkably though the visitors pulled one back straight away as Kealan Dillon fired in from outside the box.

But any hope of a comeback was shot down two minutes later as Shevlin completed his hat-trick from the spot after he was brought down.

James McLaughlin made his long-awaited return from injury and helped himself to Coleraine’s fifth eleven minutes from time.

And just before the end Jamie Glackin wrapped up the scoring with a sixth from outside the area.