RANGERS are through to the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup after battering Kilmarnock 5-0 at Ibrox last night, with Alfredo Morelos marking his return to the first team with four goals.

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard says that he got the reaction he wanted from his Rangersplayers as they swept aside Kilmarnock 5-0 at Ibrox to book their place in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals. Gerrard said: "The players won the fans back over after the weekend. The performance was there. People will talk about the advantage but I thought we were super when it was 11 v 11."

Ryan Jack has praised his team-mate Morelos' performance after the game and said that he hopes there is plenty more to come from the Ibrox club's top scorer. "He brings a real work ethic to the team and the way he presses it’s easier for us to get up behind him and press with him," said Jack. "He was outstanding and I hope there’s more of that to come from now until the end of the season."

The Herald's Stewart Fisher has mulled over five lessons we have learned from last night's thumping win for Rangers.

Meanwhile, Kilmranock manager Steve Clarke has said that the sectarian chanting coming from some sections of the home support should be conisigned to history and insisted that poor officiating cost his side the game. Clarke said: "And the red card is a joke. The goalie just lifted his arms - every goalie does it every week. It’s embarrassing. I’m talking in general. Bad decisions. All we talk about is our refs. How can I talk about football tonight?"

Brendan Rodgers last night refused to accept Celtic can’t overhaul a two goal deficit and beat Valencia and urged his players to fight to the death at the Mestalla this evening. "We accept the challenge," Rodgers said. "We know the perception will be that we’re out, but we believe that we can do it, even if it’s a tentative belief, if it’s a yes you have to go for it."

Scottish referees have reacted furiously to proposals to introduce officials from Wales and Northern Ireland for top flight games and a statement released by the officials' union blasted the SFA for their failure to protect referees. The statement read: "If there is substance to today's media reports that the Scottish Football Association are in talks with clubs about introducing overseas based officials, it's another appalling development."

Ex-Scotland boss Craig Brown says the proposal to fly in referees from overseas is a waste of time and that the money would be better spent in improving our own officials. "I don’t see the point in bringing foreign referees in honestly," said Brown. "I don’t think the present-day standard though is so bad that it requires foreign referees to be brought in."

And current Scotland manager Alex McLeish has defended Scottish referees and has pointed out how difficult a job it is to officiate in Scotland's top flight. I always felt it was the toughest job in football because of the abuse they got - and that was back then," said McLeish. "But the scrutiny is now very severe and that’s the modern world we’re in with cameras, VAR, and social media. There’s no hiding place. We should back the guys as much as we can."

And in other referee news, the controversial referee once sensationally accused of shouting "f*** you" towards furious PSG players will take charge of Celtic's clash against Valencia.

Hearts manager Craig Levein has revealed he is considering dropping goalkeeper Colin Doyle after his howler against Motherwell last weekend. "I don’t need to speak to Colin, he’s an experienced goalkeeper and he knows he made a mistake," said Levein. "There’s no point in going over it. I haven’t made my mind up about the team for the weekend yet."

And Hibernian boss Paul Heckingbottom has revealed that even Hearts fans have welcomed him to Edinburgh with open arms after one jocular Jambo crashed dinner with his parents on Saturday night. Heckingbottom said: "My parents were up on so I took them out for a meal on Saturday night after the game and met a couple of fans, which was nice. The first one was actually a Hearts fan. However, he was nice to me, so it was alright."

Falkirk boss Ray McKinnon is suffering from an eye infection and may find himself quarantined in the dugout for this weekend's fixture against Dundee United. Assistant manager Darren Taylor said: "I'm sure he will be in the dugout on Saturday. There is no reason for him not to be in the dugout and again, like Alloa, it is a fair-sized dugout. So he can be there but still keep a distance if need be. Five metres was a [recommended] 'zone’, so we’ve got five metres there."

Elsewhere, Aberdeen striker Sam Cosgrove has told the Scottish Sun that he has no plans to leave Pittodrie any time soon after hitting a vein of form that has seen him become the league's second-top scorer.

And in an interview with the Daily Record, Brendan Rodgers has insisted that individual errors, and not his tactical setup, were to blame for last week's 2-0 home defeat by Valencia.