Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty scored his first goal since mid-September as Rangers progressed to the last-16 of the Scottish Cup with a hard-earned 3-1 victory over part-timers Cowdenbeath last night.
Lafferty, Gareth McAuley and Steven Davis were all restored to the starting line-up by Rangers’ boss Steven Gerrard after they all missed Sunday’s league victory at Livingston.
The 31-year-old Fermanagh man repaid his manager’s faith in him by scoring the Gers third goal in first-half injury time to clock up his fifth for the club since his move from Hearts back in August.
Also on target in the Scottish Cup was winger Niall McGinn who opened the scoring for Aberdeen in their comprehensive 4-1 replay victory over Stenhousemuir on Tuesday evening.
Aberdeen will now face Queen of the South in round five on 10 February and McGinn is hoping the Dons’ will have an extended run in the competition this season.
“Ever since I’ve been at the club it’s always been important to do well in the cup competitions,” said McGinn, who now has three goals this season. “We’ve been to many semi-finals and finals and, although we’ve won the League Cup, it would be great to go one step further in the Scottish Cup – that’s the trophy I’d most love to win with Aberdeen.
“It’s obviously satisfying to have a home tie and just as good to have come through this game unscathed, with no fresh injuries.
“It was a good all-round display and we’ll focus on Queen of the South when that comes around because we have big games against Hibs and Rangers before then.”
Meanwhile in the Premier League in England, Craig Cathcart was also on the scoresheet as Watford surrendered a first-half lead to eventually lose 2-1 to Spurs at Wembley.
Cathcart, who scored the winner against the North-London outfit back at the start of September, headed home the opener seven minutes before the break with his third of the season.
However, after back-to-back cup defeats Pochettino’s side scored twice in the final 10 minutes to secure all three points.
Finally, in League One there were assists for Blackpool’s Jordan Thompson and Peterborough United’s on-loan defender Daniel Lafferty.
