Unhappy return
Rangers ................ 8 Clyde..................... 1 Clyde boss Barry Ferguson endured an unhappy return to Ibrox as the Bully Wee were demolished on Monday night in the third round of the Petrofac Training Cup.
Barry Ferguson did not include himself in the squad at Ibrox as he returned to his old club but John Sweeney was added to the midfield in the only change from the side that faced Queen’s Park last week.
A crowd of just 11,190 decided to attend the Monday night fixture but they saw The Gers dominate the match from the start.
The Clyde boss went with a front three that reverted to a five-man midfield when Rangers had the ball and in the early stages McCoist’s men saw plenty of it. But did little with it.
Ironically, it was Clyde’s first threat on Steve Simonsen’s goal that eventually led to Rangers’ opening goal.
Ferguson got to the byeline on the left and delivered a decent cross that failed to connect.
Rangers broke from that with Clark ending a powerful run with a well-weighted pass into the right channel for the onrushing Boyd and the striker’s low shot found the bottom right-hand corner of the keeper’s net.
The second arrived eight minutes later. Boyd played a smart dummy, leaving the ball to Aird who doubled the lead with a shot that Jamie Barclay couldn’t quite keep out.
On 32 minutes Rangers got a third and it was looking like a long night for the Bully Wee. Wallace fed Macleod who drove a cross in to the box and Boyd duly converted from close range.
Shortly after the Gers notched up their fourth. Aird cut in from the right, slipped a square ball to McCulloch and from the edge of the box, the captain fired past Barclay.
On the stroke of half time there was yet more misery for the Bully Wee. McCulloch rolled the ball in to the path of Macleod who produced a peach of a curling shot from distance.
Ferguson made changes at half time as Ryan Frances, Gordon Young and Michael Daly all came on.
Clyde even ventured into Rangers territory and had a couple of shots, neither of which troubled Simonsen, while at the other end Barclay did well to keep out efforts from Aird and McCulloch.
Nicky Law floated in an audacious chip that bounced back off the post.
Rangers made it six in 64 minutes as Shiels drove at the Clyde defence and picked out Macleod who finished from 16 yards.
Seven came as McCulloch fired a scorcher of a shot in to the postage stamp corner.
Boyd completed his hat trick on 76 minutes after finding space despite having several defenders around him.
There was a shred of consolation for the Clyde support in injury time, with Kevin Watt finishing well from a tight angle following some good play on the right wing.