Derek McInnes earned his first win as Rangers manager with a dominant 5-1 victory over holders St Mirren to advance to the quarter-finals of the Scottish League Cup, where they will meet rivals Celtic.
Ryan Naderi - who was picked in front of captain Lawrence Shankland to lead the line - opened the scoring with his first goal since April before summer signing Vanja Dragojevic produced a stunning long-range volley to net his first in Rangers colours.
Chris Mochrie replied with a spectacular strike of his own on the half hour mark but the visitors were eventually outclassed in the second period.
New signing James Penrice cleverly teed up Djeidi Gassama for the third before marking an impressive debut with a goal of his own in the 54th minute.
The Buddies' misery was then compounded when substitute Ross McCausland scored on his first Rangers appearance in 16 months - shortly after stopper Ivor Pandur had denied Killian Philipps from the penalty spot.
Elsewhere, Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian safely progressed while Stenhousemuir pulled off an unlikely upset to knock out last year's semi-finalists Motherwell.
Euan O'Reilly's dramatic extra-time winner earned the Scottish Championship outfit a place in the last eight as Marvin Bartley extended his winning start as Warriors' boss to seven matches.
At Tynecastle, Wouter Vrancken's side survived a scare from second-tier Inverness Caledonian Thistle - coming from behind to score four late goals and win 6-2.
Christian Borchgrevink, Rogers Mato, James Wilson and Claudio Braga were all on target with in-form makeshift left-back Calvin Miller bagging a brace.
Across the city, David Gray's side were also able to edge out Championship opposition as Owen Elding's first-half strike proved decisive against Partick Thistle.
Rangers v Celtic
Stenhousemuir v Heart of Midlothian
Ross County v Hibernian
Kilmarnock v Aberdeen
