Rangers 7 Hamilton Academical 1

Last updated : 06 December 2008 By Footymad Previewer
Rangers recovered from an early setback to hammer seven goals past hapless Hamilton Academical.

The visitors took the lead after only two minutes through James McArthur.

However, goals by Kenny Miller and Kris Boyd before half-time relaxed the Ibrox team before they added five goals in a sparkling second half. Boyd claimed another two to complete his hat-trick and Kyle Lafferty, Nacho Novo and Steve Davis added the other goals.

Hamilton played most of the second half with ten men after Martin Canning was sent off for denying Boyd a goalscoring opportunity just after the break.

Rangers fell behind early on when Allan McGregor's weak touch fell to McArthur, who cleverly lobbed the ball over Madjid Bougherra on the line.

Tomas Cerny made a great save to deny Miller before the striker equalised with a powerful shot from the edge of the area.

Bougherra made a brilliant tackle to block Joel Thomas after he rounded McGregor, before Miller was unlucky not to score from a DaMarcus Beasley cutback.

Rangers took the lead when Miller's clever pass found Boyd, who shot across the keeper into the corner of the net.

Boyd then nearly cracked the crossbar with a powerful left-foot strike after beating Hamilton's offside trap.

The dismissal of Canning just after half-time finished the game as a contest. McGregor's long clearance found Boyd on his own and when he was pulled down Canning was deemed the last man and had to go.

Boyd clinically converted the penalty before adding his third and Rangers' fourth when he slid home a Davis cross.

The floodgates opened in the last ten minutes when Lafferty coolly shot home from six yards, before Novo netted from the Aaron Niguez cross which fell to him.

In the last minute Davis hooked home from Lafferty's header to allow the Gers to close the gap on Celtic at the top to four points.