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Kenny Miller scored a hat-trick as Rangers maintained their three-point advantage at the top of the Scottish Championship by routing Dumbarton.

Miller netted in the first half and added two more after the break for his first treble in five years.

Martyn Waghorn's strike followed for the visitors before Andy Halliday's free-kick deflected into the net for Rangers' fifth.

James Tavernier rounded off the win with a long-range strike.

Rangers arrived at Dumbarton with a swagger after re-establishing themselves as the promotion frontrunners with last week's win over title rivals Hibernian.

But they struggled initially to adapt to the more sedate surroundings at the Sons' tiny one-stand home.

Dumbarton should have made the most of their guests' indifferent start when goalkeeper Wes Foderingham flapped at Scott Taggart's free-kick and Donald McCallum made a mess of his header.

However, three minutes before half time, Halliday clipped the ball over the top of the home defence for Miller just as he sped past his sleeping marker Taggart.

The former Scotland striker stumbled as he went past goalkeeper Mark Brown but was still able to scramble the ball home.

Rangers were given another let-off when Foderingham was again caught out coming for a Mark Docherty cross but Jon Routledge failed to make the most of his header.

As the visitors eventually clicked into gear, Tavernier slammed a header against the crossbar and Miller somehow failed to put away the rebound.

The 36-year-old came good, though, as he planted a fine header from Tavernier's cross past Brown, then completed his hat-trick by collecting a pass from the right-back before turning to slot his 10th of the season into the net.

Waghorn fired home after yet another Tavernier assist and Halliday's free-kick left Brown with no chance when it took a wild deflection off the defensive wall.

There was nothing fortuitous about Tavernier's strike three minutes from the end as his 25-yarder flew high into the net.