IAN MURRAY is set to contact St Johnstone with a view to extending Chris Kane's loan spell after the striker sparked Dumbarton's fightback in a nine-goal thriller against Hibs.

The Sons were 3-0 down and heading for a real hiding when the 20-year-old frontman was thrown on as a half-time sub at the Bet Butler Stadium.

His close-in volley gave the home team some hope and further goals from Andy Graham and Garry Fleming kept them in with a shout at 3-2 and 4-3.

But Hibs broke away twice late on against the tiring part-timers to secure a 6-3 win, with Dominique Malonga completing his hat-trick.

Murray, though, preferred to look on the positives to be taken from his side's spirited second-half display and admitted that securing Kane for the rest of the season would be a huge boost to their Championship hopes.

The Sons gaffer said: "Chris's current loan spell only runs to the end of the year so it would be great to keep him for longer.

"I've no doubt St Johnstone will want him back at some point so I'll have to speak to them about keeping him here from January till May.

"He knows how to score goals and that's going to be important for us."

Defending was more of a problem for Murray's men on Saturday as the Dumbarton boss was forced into making two substitutions at the break and ditching his preferred 3-5-2 formation after a first-half horror show.

He said: "It just didn't work this time but playing three at the back has served us well in the past, such as in our 0-0 draw at Easter Road the last time we played Hibs.

"They accused us then of parking the bus. At least we'll not get all that again," the fired-up ex-Hibee said.

"In the first half it was 3-0 going on 33-0 but we showed a lot of spirit in the second half."