Rangers march on

The plucky First Division outfit earned the quarter-final replay after a 1-1 draw at Ibrox last month but goals from Nacho Novo and Chris Burke saw Rangers progress this time, with Simon Donnelly missing a penalty for Thistle.

Rangers will now face St Johnstone in the last four, with Queen of the South having already secured a place in the Hampden final following their shock win over Aberdeen on Saturday.

Partick, clearly used to playing on the badly cut-up pitch, could have taken the lead early on when David Rowson was released through on goal and Allan McGregor was forced to race from his line to produce a last-gasp block. Marc Twaddle then drilled the rebound narrowly past the post.

At the other end, Rangers had the opportunity to put their hosts under pressure when Kris Boyd was fouled on the edge of the box by Willie Kinniburgh. Kevin Thomson stepped up for the free-kick but his well-struck effort was parried to safety by goalkeeper Jonathan Tuffey.

The breakthrough came after 26 minutes when Burke chipped the ball past his marker before slipping it through to Novo from the right flank for the striker to stab home from the edge of the six-yard box.

Thistle could have equalised had Donnelly's smart low shot not been blocked by the body of McGregor - instead they found themselves trailing by a second goal six minutes from the interval.

A deep cross from Novo found Boyd at the back post who nodded to Burke, allowing the Ibrox winger to loop a header over the goalkeeper from a few yards out.

Partick were thrown a lifeline just four minutes after the restart when David Weir fouled Mark Roberts in the box and referee Iain Brines pointed to the spot but Donnelly blasted wide.

Burke then went to ground under pressure from Kinniburgh in the box with four minutes to go but, thankfully for Rangers, the tie was over as a contest by the time Daniel Cousin fired straight into the hands of Tuffey from the penalty spot.