Cove Rangers: Jamie Masson to face scan on injury picked up at Rangers

Cove Rangers midfielder Jamie Masson is stretchered off the field at Ibrox.

Cove Rangers midfielder Jamie Masson will have a scan on an ankle injury picked up in the 4-0 Scottish Cup defeat to Rangers.

Masson had to be stretchered off just after the hour in the game at Ibrox and left the pitch with his right leg in a brace.

It came with the game already out of sight for the League One promotion chasers, with Rangers surging into a four-goal lead by the break.

Jermain Defoe, Kemar Roofe (two) and Nathan Patterson gave the Premiership champions a lead that never looked in any danger.

Manager Paul Hartley’s concerns, however, immediately switched to Masson, who had been hoping to avoid any further injury problems.

He said: “Jamie will go in for a scan – it doesn’t look like a good one. We felt if we came through the game unscathed with injuries that’d be pleasing, but we’ve got a few knocks, with (Mitch) Megginson, (Leighton) McIntosh and Masson.

“It looks like his ankle, so he’ll get scanned tomorrow We knew this might happen because of the congestion in the fixture list. We’ve not had a lot of time to prepare.”

Cove are already without full-back Harry Milne for the remainder of the campaign, after he ruptured ankle ligaments in training last month.

Steven Gerrard’s side had killed the game off in the first half, with Defoe opening the scoring after 24 minutes, with striker finding the bottom corner from 25 yards.

Kemar Roofe grabs his first goal of the game against Cove.

Roofe bagged twice in two minutes, sweeping in after Stuart McKenzie had parried Scott Arfield’s shot and then turning in Scott Wright’s cross from close range.

Patterson capitalised on slack defending from the visitors to prod home the fourth two minutes before the break, easing Rangers into the last 16 to face Celtic.

For Cove, the attention now switches to tomorrow night’s trip to Broadwood to face Clyde in League One.

Hartley added: “You go in at half-time 4-0 down and you fear the absolute worst. Credit to the players – we said to them at half-time to try get a clean sheet in the second half. It was relentless against us.

“We were totally dominated by a very good team. Some of our players have not faced that quality before and will not probably face it again.

“We were well-beaten, but we never gave up. We did things much better in the second half than we did in the first. Some of the goals we gave away were poor goals on our part.

“We regrouped at half-time and we stuck to our task in the second half. We’re playing against a very good team.”