Rangers eventually made their dominance count to comfortably see off Highland League Fraserburgh and book their place in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.

The outcome may always have been a formality, but The Broch put up a good fist of it in the first half in particular, and will head north with their heads held high.

As it was, a hat-trick from Cyriel Dessers and goals from Clinton Nsiala and Ross McCausland saw the hosts comfortably into the hat for Monday night’s draw, as they now focus on the rather more challenging task of taking on Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Here are the talking points from Ibrox…

Dessers bags hat-trick and has punters tearing hair out all in one game

An enigma wrapped in a mystery inside a conundrum. Summing up Dessers as a player has perplexed more minds than the riddle of the Sphinx.

The striker has been here long enough now for just about everyone in the Rangers support to have made up their mind over him, though, and his suitability to lead the line for the club.

This game was the Nigerian in a nutshell, as he got himself on the scoresheet three times, but frustrated the life out of the Ibrox crowd at times as well.

His miss in the early knockings of the game was a shocker, as McCausland laid the ball on a plate for him to tap into a gaping goal, only for the striker to get his body shape all wrong and somehow conspire to send the ball high and wide of not only net, but the general vicinity of the goalmouth.

If one thing can be said in Dessers’ defence though, is that if he often produces such bewildering moments, he rarely lets them get him down.

He came back for more, heading home a simple opener and then taking Rangers’ third and fifth goals well to bring his tally to 16 for the season.

On paper, that is a healthy return, but on grass, the Rangers support have never really been sold on the forward. And if he is sold in this transfer window, with various clubs on the continent circling, there likely won’t be a period of mourning down Ibrox way.

Kids get their chance

It was somewhat surprising that Rangers manager Philippe Clement named such a strong team for this game, with a couple of kids in Mason Munn and Zak Lovelace sprinkled around the edges of the starting XI.

It was particularly mystifying to see Robin Propper in the side ahead of Leon King with the trip to Old Trafford looming, and the fact the manager didn’t even trust King to start here may say much about his Ibrox future.

Of those who were on the park, Munn had little to do in goal, and almost had a nightmare moment when he was eventually called upon, but it will have been a valuable experience for the young man in any case.

There was once genuine excitement around Lovelace, and there still is some intrigue to see how he may develop, despite his injury troubles somewhat hampering his progress. It was good to see him back out there in a Rangers jersey and looking fit, even if he didn’t really pull up any trees.

When the game was won in the second half, Clement threw on Bailey Rice and Findlay Curtis, and both showed up well, almost getting on the scoresheet with efforts from the edge of the area.

Fraserburgh do themselves proud

Without intending to be patronising, the Highland League club were a credit to themselves both on and off the pitch. In fact, in all honesty, there wasn’t really any discernible difference between the level of performance they put on here and the one that near neighbours Aberdeen produced on Wednesday night.

Yes, the limit of their ambition for the most part was to sit deep and limit the damage, but they did that well in the early stages, frustrating Rangers and coughing up only a couple of opportunities for the hosts in the opening 25 minutes.

Manager Mark Cowie will be frustrated himself though with the manner of the first goal they lost, as their defence fell asleep and left Dessers with a simple free header from a James Tavernier corner.

He will also be frustrated that they didn’t seize the one big chance that came their way – more of that in a bit – but over the piece the 1700 fans who filled out the corner between the Broomloan and the Sandy Jardine Stands were more than rewarded for making the long trip down with a display from The Broch that was full of endeavour.

The team did their fans, and their club, proud. And with 36,000-odd tickets sold, they will pocket a tidy sum for their efforts too.

The big chance

All that being said, there will be at least one of the men in black and white who may have a sleepless night this evening. In fact, Scott Barbour will likely have vivid footage of his big moment playing on repeat in his mind for some time to come.

No matter the total dominance of Rangers, there was always likely to be a sniff for Fraserburgh. One big chance. And sure enough, it arrived as the match edged towards the interval with the score at 1-0.

There appeared little danger when Jefte rolled the ball back to Munn, but the young debutant played a careless ball across the box. Barbour read it, intercepted it, and bore down on goal.

Ibrox held its breath, and with the angle narrowing, he dragged the ball across Munn and, alas, inches wide of the far post.

Did McCausland seize chance?

The young winger has rather drifted out of the picture at Ibrox, but he was handed a chance to impress here, and did remind the Rangers support sporadically of the talent he possesses.

He should have had an early assist to his name but for Dessers’ horrendous miss, and he tapped home the fourth goal for Rangers after following in well at the back stick.

Still, this felt like a big afternoon for the Northern Irishman, and it felt as though he didn’t really do quite enough to nudge his way back up the pecking order.