FFIX disc repair?

[RivaOni]

I started FFIX again last night (easily my favourite Final Fantasy, although I've not played XII yet as its not out until late feb over here) and had not long finishedthe first fight with Baku (after spending forever trying to steal the Mage Masher from him!), saved, went to play again today the Ps2 wouldnt read the disc, tried another PS1 game and it read that, so dug out my PlayStation, it read the disc but then froze on the Squaresoft logo, twice.

I checked the disc and it has two minute scratches right on the outside of the disc, the rest of the "damage" is purely laser damage so these must be the only scratches affecting the game.

I have second hand games in worse condition than this so god knows why its not working!

I tried the old toothpaste trick but thats not made a difference, does anyone else have any ideas without me having to resort to "Scratchfix" or whatever its called, I cant really afford to fork out for something to repair it with in that manner, and I also can't really afford to pay £20-£25 for a new copy, plus I don't really want a Platinum copy as this was a day 1 copy!