Rangers were sent crashing out of the Tennent's Scottish Cup by Hibernian as their last realistic hope of silverware vanished.

Goals from Garry O'Connor, Ivan Sproule and new signing Chris Killen saw Hibs through to the quarter-finals following a convincing show at Ibrox.

The Scottish champions must now defy all the odds to claw their way back into the Bank of Scotland Premier League title race, or win the Champions League, to avoid a barren season.

With Rangers trailing Celtic by 15 points in the SPL, the Scottish Cup was both clubs' most realistic hope of a trophy and that led to an open game with plenty of chances.

Sproule, who had taken the place of Rangers' target Derek Riordan, made the most of his inclusion in the side and the game was just a few minutes old when he burst into the Rangers box only to screw an effort just over the crossbar.

But there was bad news for Hibs when Kevin Thomson was carried off with just seven minutes gone. He had picked up the first booking of the game before his involvement came to an abrupt end following a challenge on Barry Ferguson.

Once play was underway again, it was Rangers' turn to try their luck at goal. Thomas Buffel whipped a dangerous ball across the goalmouth but Kris Boyd was an inch wide with his diving header.

The wiry Sproule then managed to squeeze past four blue jerseys before drilling just over the bar.

But it was Rangers who would have felt desperately unlucky to head into the break still on level terms.

Buffel cut the ball back to Bob Malcolm and his thunderous drive was only kept out by the quick reflexes of goalkeeper Simon Brown, who managed to touch it onto the bar and out of play.

The breakthrough came five minutes after the restart when Hibs took the lead. Sproule skipped past Marvin Andrews before delivering the cross for O'Connor to nod home from close range.

Rangers desperately tried to haul themselves into the game again and threw fans' favourite Dado Prso into the action in place of Malcolm, but it was Hibs who had the net bulging again instead.

A long ball from Simon Brown was won in the air by O'Connor, whose flick fell into the path of Sproule to rifle home after 59 minutes.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos had the ball in the back of the net for Rangers soon after but a foul by Boyd on the goalkeeper meant the effort was disallowed.

And Hibs put the tie beyond Rangers when they grabbed goal number three after 78 minutes through Killen.

He was released into the box by Riordan and, although his initial effort was blocked by Rangers goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus, the former Oxford player managed to squeeze the rebound home from the tightest of angles to grab his first goal for the club.

Teams

Rangers Waterreus, Ricksen, Andrews, Kyrgiakos, Murray, Burke,Ferguson, Malcolm (Prso 57), Buffel, Kris Boyd,Lovenkrands (Novo 83).

Subs Not Used: Klos, Hutton, Smith.

Booked: Malcolm, Murray, Kris Boyd, Waterreus.

Hibernian Simon Brown, Whittaker, Caldwell, Hogg, Murphy,Sproule, Thomson (Glass 7), Scott Brown (Killen 60), Stewart,Fletcher (Riordan 64), O'Connor.

Subs Not Used: Malkowski, Shiels.

Booked: Thomson, Sproule, Riordan, Caldwell.

Goals: O'Connor 50, Sproule 59, Killen 78.

Att: 40,722

Ref: S Dougal (Scotland).