Danny Rohl eyes big week ahead after Rangers hammer Queen’s Park in Scottish Cup

Danny Rohl watched Rangers cruise through to the quarter-finals of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup with a thumping 8-0 win over Queen’s Park then noted that the Gers could make a “statement” by moving top of the league by next Sunday.

Captain James Tavernier scored his first career hat-trick in the first half against the Championship side – one from the spot – to take his Gers goal tally to 143, and a first goal for Ryan Naderi and an own goal from Matthew Shiels had the home side 5-0 up at the break.

Second-half goals from Naderi, Bojan Miovski and Tochi Chukwuani – his first for Rangers – completed the romp.

Rohl’s side will resume their William Hill Premiership title race when they travel to fourth-placed Motherwell on Wednesday night – where Rohl hopes to have striker Youssef Chermiti and defender Emmanuel Fernandez back fit – before welcoming leaders Hearts to Ibrox next Sunday, with Rangers currently three points behind the Jambos.

Rohl said: “Yeah, it’s about three points and three points.

“But of course, when you look at the table, if you take three points in Motherwell, then you have a big chance on Sunday to be maybe top of the league, and that would be a statement.

“But even then you have no guarantee that you will stay in this position, that’s the reason why we should take it game by game, focus on ourselves.

“I think everyone is very hungry, when you look to the faces in the dressing room, they want to be part, they want to be ready.

“I said to my players 10, 12 weeks ago, I’m not sure with how much confidence we would go in such a game today, but today you feel it from the first minute,

“But we go with bravery, with confidence, but we still know we have to work hard in the next two games.”

Rohl described Tavernier, who signed from Wigan in 2015, as a “legend” as he paid tribute to the 34-year-old defender.

Revealing that he would not have played had Max Aarons been fit, he said: “He showed his quality, we know Tav is always helpful for the group.

“He is a legend, he is always available, very professional, he scored a lot of goals for a right-back and for me it doesn’t matter if it’s a penalty or a set-play, a goal is a goal.

“I’m happy. I think we need him as a leader, and in the following weeks, there’s a big competition in his position.”

The visitors had only got through to the fifth round due to Stranraer being expelled for fielding an ineligible player in the previous round.

Queen’s Park boss Sean Crighton, whose side are bottom of the Championship, described the defeat as “embarrassing”.

He said: “Well, it was kind of a bonus for us to get this game because essentially we weren’t meant to be here and so I did say to the group that this won’t define our season, our season is about the Championship.

“But I wanted this to come and enjoy the experience and I don’t think we’ve done that.

“But I did say to them in there, you’re not going to sit here and say that you can’t be hurting after a game like that, when you get beat 8-0.

“It’s embarrassing from our point of view in terms of the kind of scoreline, but we know ourselves that we need to dust ourselves down because we’ve got a massive game on Saturday coming up against Ross County.”