If revenge is a dish best served cold, then Walter Smith was a satisfied man last night. It has taken the Rangers manager 21 years to even the score with Hamilton Academical but on a freezing occasion at Ibrox, he was given closure.

Smith was assistant manager here when the Lanarkshire side humbled Graeme Souness’s millionaires in a celebrated Scottish Cup upset but the current Rangers generation barely broke sweat as goals from Kris Boyd and Kyle Lafferty swept the holders into the last four of the Cooperative Insurance Cup.

Despite a bitterly cold night, a good proportion of Rangers’ season-ticket holders turned out for this quarter-final tie, while Hamilton fans, enjoying a rare visit to their Field of Dreams - the ground where they famously knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Cup in 1987 - filled their small section.

However, the abuse handed out to James McCarthy, Hamilton’s Ireland Under-21 player, when the sides met three days earlier in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League at New Douglas Park, had given both Rangers and the authorities a resolve to deal with the rogue supporters who have embarrassed the club this season with the anti-Irish Famine Song. Ibrox’s two giant screens carried a warning before the game, stating that: “The club, in consultation with Strathclyde Police, have to advise supporters that the singing of The Famine Song will result in those responsible being arrested.”

Respect, though, was on the agenda, anyway. The Ibrox crowd gave a minute’s applause before kick-off in memory of Ian McColl, who died at the weekend at the age of 81. McColl won six titles as a Rangers player and captain between 1945 and 1960 and then went on to manage Scotland for four fruitful years.

The current club captain, Barry Ferguson, made a surprising appearance on the bench after five months out following ankle surgery. Smith had discarded any notion of rotation for the secondary cup competition. The Rangers manager wanted as strong a team as possible to represent the holders. That side dominated the opening half-hour, when Hamilton barely crossed the halfway line.

The hosts, in contrast, swarmed over Billy Reid’s team, with Boyd coming close to scoring after just four minutes when Steve Davis touched a short free kick into the striker’s path and his raking shot was touched past the post by the diving Tomas Cerny. Boyd had scored twice against Hamilton at the weekend and Cerny kept out a backward header when the striker met a cross from Sasa Papac five minutes later. It was little surprise when Rangers made the breakthrough, nor that Boyd provided the goal.

Jean-Claude Darcheville’s pace cut Hamilton open on the left, as he skipped past David Graham to advance into the box and clip a cut-back to Papac. The defender’s shot was miscued but Boyd seized on the loose ball and although his first shot was blocked by Cerny, he recovered to finish with his other foot, stabbing the shot beyond Brian Easton on the line.

If that was a blow to Hamilton’s ambitions, then so too was the injury to Chris Swailes in the 35th minute. The experienced centre back had to depart the pitch for the rest of the half after a sickening clash of heads with Darcheville as the Hamilton medical staff tried to stem the blood.

In Swailes’ absence, Davis fired a shot just over the bar and then the Northern Ireland midfield player came close again after a neat exchange of passes with Boyd. Twice Swailes tried to return to the pitch, but each time the head wound reopened and he had to rush back to the dressing-room.

When Swailes did return to the fray, for the second half, his head was swathed in a bandage, a la Terry Butcher, once of this parish. There was no hiding place for the Hamilton defender who had to make several, no doubt painful, headed clearances during an early siege.

Swailes could do nothing to prevent Rangers doubling their lead in the 50th minute. Davis dovetailed with Broadfoot and then clipped a cross into the box that was met by Lafferty, who towered over his marker, Trent McLenahan, and buried a powerful header past Cerny. The visiting team, who had five players under the age of 21 in their ranks, now had a mountain to climb Maurice Edu and Darcheville both came close to adding to Hamilton’s misery.

The clock had gone well past the hour before Hamilton produced their first threat, with the industrious David Graham producing a save from Allan McGregor. Reid then decided to introduce Richard Offiong, Stephen Ettien and Marc Corcoran in the quest for a goal.

With Rangers firmly in control, Kirk Broadfoot ventured forward and skipped past two defenders before seeing his drive blocked by Cerny.

With just under 20 minutes to go, the small band of Hamilton fans screamed for a penalty when Offiong went to ground under pressure from Madjid Bougherra but their protests were ignored by Eddie Smith, the referee. Rangers knew a third goal would kill off any hope of a Hamilton come-back and Nacho Novo came close within seconds of coming off the bench, before Lafferty squandered the chance to add to his tally.

Rangers (4-4-2): A McGregor - K Broadfoot, M Bougherra, D Weir, S Papac - S Davis, P Mendes, M Edu, K Lafferty - K Boyd, J-C Darcheville (sub: N Novo, 72min). Substitutes not used: N Alexander, B Ferguson, K Miller, S Whittaker.

Hamilton Academical (4-5-1): T Cerny - T McLenahan, C Swailes (sub: M Corcoran, 75), D Elebert, B Easton - D Graham, J McCarthy (sub: S Ettien, 69), A Neil, J McArthur,J Gibson - L Akins (sub: R Offiong, 59). Substitutes not used: S Murdoch, C Casement.

Referee: E Smith.