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Glasgow Rangers' crisis continues - recently parting ways with their head coach, one of the most famous Scottish teams suffered another failure and lost to the bottom team of the Premier League, Dunfermline, as guests, exiting the Scottish Cup tournament.
Interim Rangers coach Ian Durrant brought back former captain Barry Ferguson to the team, but the latter's previous magic was kept by Gavin Rae, while the team's newcomer Andy Webster suffered an injury in one of his first training sessions and will not be able to help the club for several weeks.
Dunfermline players have not scored first this season, but they broke the streak in the 17th minute when Jim Hamilton led the hosts forward with a strong shot. Just twelve minutes later, the visitors conceded another goal - Stephen Simmons took advantage of the opponent's unsuccessful defence and scored.
Immediately after halftime, the score became overwhelming, as Phil McGuire headed in the third goal after a corner kick. This seemed to awaken Rangers, and in the 54th minute, Kris Boyd reduced their deficit after a beautiful combination from the visitors, scoring again later in the half and reviving Glasgow's hopes.
At the end of the match, B. Ferguson hit the hosts' goalpost, K. Boyd's shot was close, but Dunfermline held on and gifted their coach, Stephen Kenny, his first win in nine matches and an unexpected ticket to the fourth round, while for Rangers, it meant their exit from the second cup tournament of the season.
The draw for the fourth round revealed that Dunfermline will face defending champions Edinburgh Hearts, Scottish champions Glasgow Celtic will play against lower league Livingston, and the winner of the Aberdeen-Hibernian pair will face last year's finalist Gretna.
All of the Scottish Cup fourth round pairs:
- Motherwell - Morton
- Dunfermline - Hearts
- Inverness CT - Dundee United/St Mirren
- Falkirk - St Johnstone/Ayr United
- Deveronvale - Partick Thistle
- Dundee/Queen of the South - Cowdenbeath/Brechin City
- Aberdeen/Hibernian - Gretna
- Livingston - Celtic
