Aaron Ramsey among three debutants as Rangers stroll to Scottish Cup victory in Annan

Aaron Ramsey’s first starting appearance in club football for six months might not feature too prominently if the Welsh international ever gets around to writing his memoirs.

But as a step forward in making a telling contribution during his loan spell at Rangers, his role in a facile Scottish Cup fifth round victory over Annan Athletic was a welcome development for the 31-year-old.

Ramsey looked fit and sharp as he helped the Scottish champions cruise into the quarter-finals with first half goals from Filip Helander, Kemar Roofe and Fashion Sakala.

He was replaced just after the hour mark, Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst satisfied to maintain the steady build-up of the Juventus playmaker’s match readiness after his two brief substitute outings.

It was a night which afforded the Dutch coach the luxury of making 11 changes to his line-up, including a debut for 20-year-old Polish right-back Mateusz Zukowski, as he kept most of his big guns in reserve ahead of the first leg of their Europa League knockout round play-off tie against Borussia Dortmund in Germany on Thursday.

If Ramsey’s maiden start was the headline news from Rangers’ perspective, the return of Filip Helander was also significantly noteworthy.

The Swedish international defender, sidelined since September by a knee injury which required surgery, took just seven minutes to reannounce himself as he gave van Bronckhorst’s men the breakthrough.

Helander, whose last goal was the Old Firm winner at Ibrox at the start of the season, saw a header kept out by Dominic Docherty’s goal line clearance from one Ramsey corner. From the next, Ramsey had his first assist in a Rangers jersey as he again picked out Helander who this time directed his header through a