Rangers 8 Queen’s Park 0 – Scottish Cup exit at Ibrox

QUEEN’S PARK were knocked out of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup at the fifth round stage by relentless Rangers in an 8-0 scoreline at Ibrox.

The Spiders must now now turn all their focus to the William Hill Championship as they travel to Dingwall next to face Ross County on Saturday. 

Sean Crighton’s side had been given a Scottish Cup reprieve after defeat on penalties in Stranraer in the last round however an ineligible player for the home side saw the Queen’s Park take the Blues’ place at Ibrox.

It ended in another defeat which included a penalty.

James Tavernier scored a hat-trick, new Rangers signing Ryan Naderi was also on target and a Matty Shiels own goal contributed to a bruising day for the Southsiders.

Queen’s Park were under pressure from the start but defended brilliantly in the opening five minutes, Cal Ferrie made a brilliant save to deny Rommens from opening the score. 

Unfortunately, minutes later Rangers opened the scoring through a Naderi header from a corner, awarded while Queen’s appealed for a handball at the edge of the area.

Despite conceding early the Spiders managed to maintain their shape well but further set plays would come back to haunt them.

Queen’s did try to hit Rangers on the counter, with Aidan Connolly finding the back of the net after a Seb Drozd runa nd cut-back, but  the linesman raised his flag for offside.

Despite the Spiders’ best efforts in maintaining their shape, Tavernier doubled the host’s lead with under 20 minutes played after a scramble in the box. 

Last year’s hero Cal Ferrie produced a good save from a Bojan Miovski header to keep the score at 2-0.

Even with Queen’s Park still defending well Tavernier scored direct from a corner to make it 3-0 within the first 30 minutes. Ferrie made another brilliant save after another corner was whipped into the box from the hosts.

Rangers were awarded a penalty for a handball from Roddy Macgregor blocking a shot at point-blank range,  and Tavernier hit the target to make it 4-0.

Just before halftime the hosts scored a fifth through Chukwuani from a corner. 

The referee blew for halftime with the Spiders down at the break. 

Sean Crighton made one change for the restart with Tyrece McDonnell coming off for Ricky Waugh. 

The Spiders started the second half well as they were able to have a spell of possession which saw Longridge have space on the edge of the box but was unable to keep his shot down. 

Five minutes after the restart Rangers scored their sixth with a header from Naderi.  

The Spiders continued to hold their shape as best they could against the impressive home side, with Carlo Pignatiello heading clear at the back post to keep Naderi out with just over 30 minutes to go. 

Ferrie produced another save after a Skov Olsen shot from outside the box travelled straight to the keeper.

Queen’s Park came close through a long distant attempt from Connolly with 15 minutes to go but chances for the visitors were few and far between.

Miovski’s header gave Rangers their seventh of the afternoon with just under 10 minutes left and the Gers score to make it 8-0 with the last kick of the game through a low strike from Chukwuani. 

Queen’s Park: Ferrie, Fieldson, Murray, Longridge, MacGregor (Bradley 76), Savoury (McLeish 76), Connolly (McLean 76), Pignatiello, McDonnell (Waugh 46), Shiels, Drozd (Sowa 88). 

By Robbie McNair, Glasgow Clyde College