Boyd on target as Gers win

The striker bagged a double against Accies in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League at the weekend and was on target again at Ibrox to set the ball rolling before Kyle Lafferty sealed the win.

It proved to be a far more convincing victory than their meeting with Partick in the last round, which saw the holders require extra-time to progress past the Irn-Bru First Division side.

Boyd had an early opportunity to put Hamilton under pressure with a free-kick just outside the box. His long, low shot was well-struck but took a slight deflection and fizzed wide.

Sasa Papac then collected a short corner from Lafferty and delivered the ball to Boyd 10 yards from goal but his flicked header was comfortably held by goalkeeper Tomas Cerny.

Papac was the provider again with another decent ball into the box which was nodded on to Jean-Claude Darcheville by Steven Davis only for the Frenchman to send his own header just over the crossbar.

Rangers' hard work paid off when they opened the scoring after 25 minutes, with the identity of the goalscorer no real surprise. Darcheville's cut-back found Papac whose shot was blocked before the ball fell to Boyd. He saw his initial effort cleared off the line by Brian Easton, before stabbing home from close range at the second attempt.

Rangers were keen to add to their lead and piled on the pressure after the restart, with Boyd firing over after taking a pass from Darcheville.

It was Lafferty who doubled the advantage instead when he met a superb ball from Davis and left Cerny with no chance with a looping header from just outside the six-yard box with 50 minutes gone.

With just under 20 minutes to go, the small band of Hamilton fans screamed for a penalty when Richard Offiong went to ground under pressure from Madjid Bougherra but their protests were ignored by referee Eddie Smith.