Paul Hartley expects skipper Gary Harkins to get a "nice friendly welcome from everybody" when he goes to Ibrox with Dundee for the William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final tie after his "new club" comments about Rangers.

The Dark Blues boss was speaking after the 5-0 fifth-round replay win over Dumbarton at Dens Park, where Harkins set up defender Paul McGinn and Kane Hemmings for their goals in the first half, before Greg Stewart Kevin Holt and Stewart again completed the scoring in the second-half.

Rangers re-emerged at the bottom tier of Scottish football following liquidation in 2012 and since then the debate as to whether the Light Blues' are the same club has ensued.

When asked about the prospect of facing Rangers, Harkins said: "They're just a new club. I've not played them before, so I'm looking forward to that. It should be good."

The player later stated on his Twitter account that it was: "Just a wee joke took too far."

Asked what Harkins should expect on March 5 at Ibrox, Harley said, with a smile, "I don't know, a nice friendly welcome from everybody.

"We are just focusing on the football side, that is the important thing for me.

"You have to handle the occasion wherever you go.

"You have to go Celtic Park on the Wednesday night before, we have to handle that also.

"When you go and play a large support you have to show your true character and mentality and we have to handle all of that as a team, not just one player, the whole squad has got to handle that."

Hartley was pleased with a "professional, clinical and well-deserved" win over the Championship part-timers.

He also felt some of the cautions handed out by referee Stephen Finnie were a little "harsh".

Finnie booked Harkins, striker Rory Low and Dumbarton striker Christian Nade for simulation, the latter two for incidents inside the opposition box

Hemmings was also booked for dissent just before the break which led Hartley to take preemptive action when the tie was safe.

He said: "I thought the bookings were maybe a little bit harsh.

"I had to take Hemmings and Harkins off, and Darren O'Dea, because O'Dea was booked in a previous round and with two bookings you miss the next game.

"And with Harkins and Hemmings on a booking tonight, we felt we had to take them off, we didn't want to take any chances."

Sons manager Stevie Aiken was disappointed with his side's performance but claims a penalty for Nade instead of a booking when he went down in a challenge with O'Dea at 2-0 might have changed the game.

He said: "If the penalty decision goes our way, as it should have done, it could have been 2-1 and they were down to 10 men, who knows what could have happened.

"I was disappointed he was booked, there is no need for him to go down, he cuts inside and has just the goalkeeper to beat.

"You could hear it, the coming together. I think the referee did it because he booked Gary Harkins 10 minutes before it for what he said was a dive.

"But it is not nice to lose five goals, no matter who you are playing against.

"We are bitterly disappointed we didn't give a better showing than we did but credit to Dundee, they were ruthless in front of goal. We have to take it in the chin."