Ally McCoist believes Kris Boyd proved his ability as he scored a hat-trick in Rangers' 6-0 Scottish Cup thrashing of East Stirlingshire.The club's top goalscorer has found himself out of favour in recent weeks but was in fine form in Wednesday night's fourth-round tie at Ibrox as Rangers eased to a comprehensive win to set up a meeting with Hibernian.

It has been a frustrating time for Boyd but, following the departure of Daniel Cousin to Fulham, he could now finally force his way into manager Walter Smith's plans.

Assistant boss McCoist said: "When you score a hat-trick and come off with the man-of-the-match award and the match ball, you have to say that he has impressed you.

"To be fair to Kris, he has always stated his case. He comes in and he does well and he scores goals.

"I can understand Kris' situation probably better than anybody at the club and I've had talks with him.

"All he can do when he is in possession of the jersey is go out and score goals and try to impress the manager.

"He certainly did that tonight with the hat-trick. The one thing about Kris Boyd is that you know there are goals there and he did himself no harm again tonight."

Rangers have been linked with Aston Villa striker Luke Moore as a potential replacement for Cousin, although Martin O'Neill is unwilling to let him leave Villa Park for less than £3.5million.

Rangers have yet to make any moves in the transfer market this month but McCoist believes failing to sign a forward before January 31 would be far from a disaster.

He added: "I wouldn't say there is an urgency to replace Cousin. I think it has been good business for everybody involved and we obviously wish Daniel all the very best and thank him for his services.

"We have got one or two players up front and we are probably stronger up front than we are anywhere else on the park, with guys like (Steven) Naismith, (Jean-Claude) Darcheville and Boyd."

It was also a productive night for Lee McCulloch, who helped himself to a double, while £9million Tottenham target Alan Hutton was also on the scoresheet.

Hutton rejected the move south to remain in Glasgow but reports suggest the right-back could have had a change of heart.

But McCoist insisted: "All I can say is, to my knowledge, the bid was accepted and Alan expressed a desire to stay at the club.

"From a footballing point of view, I'm absolutely delighted, I'm thrilled. You saw tonight that he is a proper player, who is progressing all the time, and he scored a magic goal tonight. I'm not aware of any change of heart from Alan or anyone else."

McCulloch appeared to pull up towards the end of the match but McCoist revealed there is no cause for concern.

He said: "He is fine. It looked as though he went over on his ankle but I just spoke to him coming up the tunnel and he is fine. I was a little bit concerned when I saw him go down but he is absolutely fine."

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