Queen of the South 1-5 Rangers

Jason Holt celebrates scoring Rangers' third at Palmerston Park

Rangers were much too slick for Queen of the South as they won comfortably at Palmerston Park in the Championship.

The visitors' swift, sharp passing and ruthlessness in the final third created goals for Andy Halliday, Jason Holt and the excellent Barrie McKay.

Martyn Waghorn scored two penalties as Rangers made it eight wins from eight.

In the home ranks, striker Derek Lyle was dismissed after going head-to-head with Rob Kiernan, with Aidan Smith netting a late breakaway consolation.

Rangers sought to play with pace from the off, as captain Lee Wallace latched onto the lively McKay's pass at full tilt down the left, surging into the home box, but finding neither a team-mate nor the bottom corner with his bobbling ball across the face of goal.

And McKay was instrumental in Rangers' opener, driving at the defence, exchanging passes with Waghorn, and playing in Halliday to clip the ball across goalkeeper Robbie Thomson.

A knee injury deprived Rangers of their skipper shortly after the half-hour mark, before Hibernian loanee Alex Harris stung the palms of Wes Foderingham in the away goal with a driven strike from the right of the area.

Minutes later Chris Higgins, who had already clattered the speeding James Tavernier early on, allowed Waghorn the opportunity to attack again with an awful looping backwards header in his own half, but made amends with a smart block in the box.

Martyn Waghorn slots the first of his two penalties

On the stroke of half-time, Ryan Conroy wasted a fine chance for Queens on the break, as he opted to square for Lyle rather than shoot himself, with Danny Wilson sliding in smartly to block.

Three minutes after the break, with Mark Millar booked for treading on the prone Gedion Zelalem, Lyle was dismissed on the advice of fourth official Crawford Allan.

The striker went forehead-to-forehead with Kiernan, and the minimal forward motion he made with his head was in full view of Allan, who advised referee Bobby Madden to show a red card.

If things were not bad enough for Queens, they got worse three minutes later, as Andy Dowie shouldered Dominic Ball to the ground in the box as the midfielder raced to reach Tavernier's square ball with the empty net beckoning.

Right-back Dowie, who had been torn apart by the pace and trickery of McKay during the first half, was only shown yellow.

Waghorn slammed home the resultant spot-kick, and from that point Rangers' high-tempo passing football was too much for the hosts.

Derek Lyle and Rob Kiernan clash, before the former is sent off

Holt ran unchallenged into the Queens area, and finished Zelalem's through ball at the second time of asking to bag the visitors' third.

And more smart, intricate passing from Waghorn and Kenny Miller allowed McKay to tap home a deserved fourth on 65 minutes.

Rangers boss Mark Warburton introduced the flamboyant Nathan Oduwa for the final 20 minutes, with the substitute drawing several fouls from the home defence.

After Oduwa was chopped down on the edge of the area, Iain Russell raised his arm high to block the resultant free-kick, and Waghorn thumped his second penalty beyond Thomson.

Queens did get off the mark in the final 10 minutes, young striker Smith capitalising on a long central punt and holding off Kiernan well to knock the ball past Foderingham.