BBC Sport - Falkirk 0-5 Aberdeen By Kenny Crawford BBC Sport Scotland Scott Vernon's hat-trick helped Aberdeen thump Falkirk and enter Thursday's Scottish League Cup quarter-final draw. Joe Shaughnessy dispatched a low shot to begin the scoring before Cammy Smith benefited from Shaughnessy's knock-down to fire the Dons' second. Substitute Vernon added Aberdeen's third and fourth from close range. And the Englishman capped a great night for Aberdeen and a miserable one for Falkirk by netting a penalty. It is now four goals in two games for Vernon as he followed up his winner against Inverness on Saturday with a lethal display. Aberdeen's hopes of repeating their League Cup winning success of 1996 will now heighten. Falkirk have produced their fair share of cup shocks over the years but on this occasion their visitors were in firm control to ensure straightforward progress. Much credit is rightly given to Gary Holt's Bairns, who fielded a starting XI with an average age of 21 at the Falkirk Stadium. But it was two of Aberdeen's fledglings who made the game safe by half-time. Michael Hector intelligently held off a Falkirk defender to allow 21-year-old Shaughnessy the room to fire across home goalkeeper Michael McGovern after Clark Robertson's long-throw. It is a second Aberdeen goal for the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international who seems to do well in cup competitions - his first Dons goal came in the Scottish Cup last season. Smith made it two for Derek McInnes's side with a technically perfect finish, reaffirming former Aberdeen manager Craig Brown's comparison of the 18-year-old with Dutch legend Dennis Bergkamp. Prior to those goals, Falkirk did force Aberdeen goalkeeper Jamie Langfield into one fantastic save when he dived to palm away Jay Fulton's close-range effort. Calvin Zola had also put himself about in good ways and bad ways - having a header cleared off the line by Stephen Kingsley after he had earlier slid in feet-first on McGovern to earn a booking. Zola's replacement, Vernon, provided further evidence that his goal-scoring touch has well and truly returned. He lurked at the back-post to turn in Robertson's headed flick for the third before picking up the scraps from Smith's parried strike to side-foot home Aberdeen's fourth. Peter Pawlett's burst of pace had Falkirk defender Will Vaulks diving in and conceding the spot-kick. There was never going to be any taker other than Vernon and he scored emphatically into the top left corner. 01 McGovern 02 Duffy 03 Kingsley 05 Flynn 06 Vaulks Booked 07 Fulton 08 Alston (Bingham - 56') 10 Sibbald 11 McGrandles Booked 33 Loy 09 Roberts (Leahy - 66') 12 Bowman 22 Kyle Turnbull 34 McCracken 19 Leahy 13 Bingham 11 Hayes (Murray - 67') 14 Smith (Magennis - 80') 22 Jack 07 Zola Booked (Vernon - 33')