Dumbarton vs Rangers. Scottish Championship.
The C & G Systems StadiumAttendance1,894.
Saturday 2 January 2016 18:19, UK
Kenny Miller scored a hat-trick as Rangers retained their three-point lead at the top of the Scottish Championship with a 6-0 win at Dumbarton.
Miller scored the opener three minutes before the break before adding two more after the break, with Martyn Waghorn, Andy Halliday and James Tavernier also on target in a comfortable victory.
Both sides observed a minute's silence before kick-off to remember those who lost their lives in the Ibrox Disaster on January 2 1971.
Gers began slowly after the game got under way and Dumbarton should have taken the lead when goalkeeper Wes Foderingham failed to gather a Scott Taggart free-kick, only for Donald McCallum to make a mess of his header.
Waghorn then failed to convert a free header before Miller bundled home from close range after he got on the end of Halliday's centre (42).
The visitors gradually took control and only the crossbar denied them a second goal when Tavernier powered a header onto the bar from Waghorn's cross, with Miller somehow failing to convert the rebound.
Miller eventually added another when he latched onto a cross from the right by Tavernier to head past Rovers goalkeeper Mark Brown.
The striker then completed his treble after 64 minutes, stroking the ball home after controlling the ball into the box, to score his first hat-trick for the club since achieving the feat in the 3-2 win over Kilmarnock in November 2010.
Miller was replaced by Dean Shiels soon afterwards but Mark Warburton's side continued to press and added a fourth goal through Martyn Waghorn.
Tavernier was once again the provider as Waghorn received the ball from the right-back before shooting into the corner of the net on 71 minutes.
Dumbarton's defence was breached again when Halliday - cleared to play after his red card in the 4-2 win over Hibernian was rescinded - fired home a free-kick that took a big deflection off the defensive wall.
Tavernier then added a sixth with his second of the afternoon when he smashed a 25-yard shot into the top corner.
