Rangers 8-1: Kris Boyd shows old pal Barry Ferguson he hasn't lost his touch

How many times did Barry Ferguson witness this scene when he and Kris Boyd were Rangers team-mates?

The ball lands at the Boyd’s feet and, without breaking stride, he coolly sends it beyond the opposition goalkeeper.

Such an image was once a source of joy for Ferguson. The feeling it created on Monday night was distinctly different.

All smiles: Striker Kris Boyd celebrates scoring in Rangers' 8-1 win over Barry Ferguson's Clyde

Any hope the former captain had of a shock triumph on his return to Ibrox was shredded from the moment Boyd netted the first goal of his second spell in light blue.

The peerless poacher duly completed a hat-trick amid a relentless rout that saw Ferguson’s collection of part-time players five down by the break.

 

It just so happened that Monday was Boyd’s 31st birthday. You get the feeling he wouldn’t have wanted to celebrate in any other way.

After an incredible 127 goals in his first Rangers stint between 2006 and 2010, he was now back in the old routine to aid a cruise into the quarter-finals of the Petrofac Training Cup. Ally McCoist will be hoping it also sparks Boyd to provide the potency required to buoy their Championship challenge.

With doubles from Lee McCulloch and Lewis Macleod, and a further strike from Fraser Aird, this became a gruelling evening for Ferguson and his charges. 

Numerous members of the League Two side had turned in a shift in their respective trades before heading to Ibrox and tugging on their boots. Come full-time, they could at least take the slimmest sliver of consolation from Kevin Watt’s last-gasp reply.

Yet the resounding scoreline was not the only notable statistic to emerge last night. The attendance of 11,190 was the lowest at Ibrox since the Graeme Souness revolution of 1986. It made for an atmosphere far removed from some of the high-octane occasions Ferguson once savoured. 

Tough to take: Clyde player-manager, and former Rangers midfielder, Ferguson looks on during the 8-1 defeat

His last appearance as a player at the Govan ground had come against Aberdeen in May 2009. By that point, of course, his number was up after upsetting manager Walter Smith with his role in the Boozegate fiasco while on Scotland duty a couple of months earlier.

That foolish incident – when Ferguson and Allan McGregor had a booze binge at the national team hotel before compounding their felony with childish v-signs at photographers – cast a shadow over his second spell at the club.

Yet his achievements remain remarkable. Before exiting to Birmingham City, Ferguson signed off by lifting the Scottish Cup for a fifth time with victory over Falkirk at Hampden. Added to five league titles and five League Cups, not to mention reaching the 2008 UEFA Cup final, he stands as one of the most successful Rangers players in the modern era. A total of 431 appearances produced 61 goals.

Ferguson had insisted pre-match that he would attempt to take the game to McCoist’s men and duly set out his side in a bold 4-3-3 formation. Their optimism didn’t last long.

By half-time, he was doubtless wishing he had taken a far more cautious approach with a group of players whose Rangers links extended well beyond the dug-out.

Scott McManus, a nephew of Walter Smith, spearheaded their attack. Gordon Durie’ s son Scott filled the right-back role. On the left wing was Scott Ferguson, an old friend of Macleod’s from the Murray Park youth system.