Walter Smith impressed by display of Vladimir Weiss
Weiss gave the Accies defence a torrid time in the 4-0 win
The performance of double goalscorer Vladimir Weiss in Rangers' 4-0 Scottish Premier League home win over Hamilton caught the eye of manager Walter Smith.
"He played exceptionally well in the first half. When he is in that kind of form, he is a struggle to handle," said Smith, whose team eased to victory.
"He scored, got us the penalty and then had the free-kick to add to it."
With the Accies match the first of six in 19 days for Rangers, Smith subbed Weiss and Steven Davis after the break.
The pair were the most impressive in Rangers' starting 11 against a severely depleted Hamilton side.
Weiss gave the Ibrox outfit the lead after 25 minutes with a drive past Tomas Cerny and three minutes later was felled by David Elebert, giving Steven Whittaker the chance to score from the spot.
Then on the stroke of half-time the Slovak almost passed a free-kick into the net, with Kenny Miller's run across the face of the visitors' makeshift defence causing sufficient confusion for the ball to run through into the net.
After an hour, Smith sent on Gregg Wylde and Maurice Edu for Weiss and Davis respectively, and gave Ricky Foster 20 minutes of action when Sasa Papac pulled up injured.
"We've got a lot of games coming up and Maurice Edu needs some game time," said the Rangers boss after the game.
"Sasa Papac got a slight groin strain late in the game, which prevented Nikica Jelavic from coming on.
"But all in all we are pleased. We imposed ourselves on the game right away.
"They were awkward to break down in that first 20 minutes but once we got in front we went on from there and I felt that we deserved the win."
Smith confirmed that there had been no developments on Saturday surrounding Miller's possible move to Birmingham or Fiorentina, but dismissed the notion that his muted display had anything to do with his transfer talks.
In the second half of the season we have to try and maintain our away form and we have to improve our home form
Rangers manager Walter Smith
"It was difficult for strikers today because of the way the game was going," said Smith.
"Hamilton were sitting back all the time. There wasn't a great deal of space for any of them to play and consequently you are looking for goals coming from other areas of the pitch and Vladimir Weiss got that from wider areas."
Next for the defending SPL champions is a home match against away specialists Inverness, who drew 1-1 at Ibrox in October.
Smith said: "In the second half of the season we have to try and maintain our away form and we have to improve our home form.
"That's a win against Kilmarnock in the cup during the week, a good win against Hamilton and hopefully we can do the same against Inverness, who have an excellent record going away from home."
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