Cowdenbeath 1-3 Rangers: Gers cruise to the next round of the Scottish Cup
Rangers eased past lower division team Cowdenbeath 3-1 at the Central Park Stadium to move into the next round of the Scottish Cup. Andy Halliday, Coulibaly and Kyle Lafferty were the scorers for Steven Gerrard’s men. David Cox did score the solitary goal for the hosts but it wasn’t enough.
In a game that was close in some respects, the Gers took the lead in the 12th minute when they took full advantage of Cowdenbeath going down to 10 men for a moment due to injury. Halliday did some fantastic trick before firing a shot past David McGurn from 18 yards.
Fourteen minutes later, from a corner, Lafferty did well to win his flick on. Jermaine Defoe was on hand to fire a shot towards goal, which was well blocked. But the rebound fell kindly for Coulibaly to slot the ball into the back of the net and suck the life out of the home side in this cup tie.
Right at the stroke of half-time, Ryan Jack threaded in a lovely through ball and Lafferty broke the offside trap to go in and score the Rangers’ third goal of the night.
Just after half-time, Cowdenbeath won a penalty when Renton used his physique to shrug off Nikola Katic’s challenge and win the foul against Jon Flanagan. Although Harvey Swann’s spot-kick was initially saved by Wed Foderingham, David Cox was there in the rebound to pull one back for the hosts.
Rangers had their chances to win this game by a wide margin but the finishing was mediocre at times. In any case, they are through to the next round of the cup.
Here’s how their fans reacted on Twitter after a comfortable night:
Average performance! We go again at the weekend. We need to improve. WATP. No Surrender. 🔴⚪🔵
— 👑 King Pin Dazza 👑 (@Kingpindazza) January 30, 2019
Let’s all get into perspective there were 8 changes made from Sunday’s starting lineup and we were already 3 up at half time on a freezing cold night in Fife, take the win.
— Scott Murray (@ScottMurray_94) January 30, 2019
Took 10 years off my life that second half but got there in the end.
— The Banter Years (Gerrard Era) (@LOOKATEM_Cairo) January 30, 2019
Uninspiring. The win is all that matters I suppose.
— JJ Bird 🃏 (@jjbrd_39) January 30, 2019
Woeful! But least we know what players can’t step up to first team now, how Flanagan is a footballer is beyond me 😂😂🙈
— Connor lough (@lough_9) January 30, 2019
Brutal 2nd half the defence was shocking. What is Flanagan doing. Other than that well done 🙈
— 4 Lads Had A Dream (@WeKnowHeKnew) January 30, 2019
