RANGERS BLOW AWAY BRAVE AYR

ALFREDO MORELOS posted a miss of the season contender before helping Rangers bury Ayr with a second-half goal avalanche.

Graeme Murty’s side booked a spot in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals with a 6-1 win at an icy Somerset Park, where snow had to be moved off the pitch to get the game on.

It looked like Rangers might slip up when keeper Wes Foderingham fluffed a clearance to gift Alan Forrest an early Ayr opener.

Morelos then blazed over from three yards but made amends by levelling on the half-hour.

And there was no way back for the League One side after the break as Morelos and Josh Windass (above) completed braces, and Jason Cummings and Jamie Murphy also netted.

Murty said: “Some of our play is exhilarating. You see the tempo we move the ball at, the quality we have in the side but I still think we can get better.”

Ayr assistant manager Neil Scally said: “I don’t think it was a 6-1 game. It was quite sore to take given the majority of goals came in the last 20 minutes.”

Aberdeen thumped Dundee United 4-2 at Pittodrie. Gary MackaySteven scored twice with Adam Rooney and Kenny McLean also finding the United net.

Sam Stanton gave the visitors brief hope by making it 2-1 before the Dons stretched their lead to 4-1. Sub Paul McMullan made it 4-2 with a cracker.

Holders Celtic scraped past Partick 3-2 on Saturday with Hearts seeing off St Johnstone 3-0 and Motherwell winning 2-0 at Dundee.

Highland League duo Brora and Cove bowed out in style. Brora went down 4-0 at Kilmarnock while Falkirk won 3-1 at the home of the league leaders.