Three Motherwell youngsters were in Betfred Cup action this weekend for their respective loan clubs.
Northern Ireland youth international Shea Gordon made a blistering start to his stint at Partick Thistle with a brace on his debut, helping the Jags to a 2-0 win over Stenhousemuir at Ochilview.
The 20-year-old opened the scoring after just two minutes, smashing home after some unselfish play by Blair Spittal.
He doubled his and Thistle’s total just four minutes later with a goal of some quality. The former Sheffield United man latched on to a long ball by Sean McGinty to send a lovely lob over the goalkeeper and into the net to complete the scoring.
Ross MacLean also made his first competitive appearance for Morton who went down 3-1 away to fellow Championship side Ayr United.
The ‘Ton took an early first-half lead through Michael Tidser and were ahead at the break, but lost three second half goals to a Ayr side that contained former ‘Well youngsters Craig Moore and David Ferguson amongst the squad.
Recent recruit Neil McLaughlin was also named amongst the starters for Stirling Albion as they took on Premiership side Dundee at Forthbank.
The striker played the full 90 minutes, but the Binos were unable to stop Neil McCann’s side from running out comfortable 4-0 winners.
Jake Hastie’s Alloa Athletic kick off their Betfred Cup campaign on Tuesday night when Arbroath visit the Indodrill Stadium.