By Sheryl Ritchie
One of Rangers’ future stars, shone brightest as they ran out comfortable 4-0 winners against Stirling Albion this evening to progress to the next round of the Scottish Cup. 18-year-old, Alex Lowry started on the bench with ‘B Team’ compatriots Leon King and Charlie McCann however, he was called into action, to make an 11th minute debut, replacing the injured Ianis Hagi, and he grasped the opportunity with both hands, coolly slotting home the opening goal, before picking up the sponsors Man of the Match award. For the Rangers fans, who follow the ‘B’ team more closely, Lowry’s contribution wasn’t all that surprising. Known for a cool head and excellent range of passing, Lowry strolled through the game, a moment he has been waiting for since joining the club whilst still at Primary School.
‘It’s a dream! I came through the door here at eight years old and ten years later I’m making my debut for the first team and scoring, I’m buzzing!’
Most Read on FollowFollow.com Danny Rohl quotes after Brann match Rangers Quotes from Graz The FollowFollow Friday Preview
Lowry spoke with a measure and maturity that mirrored his performance on the pitch. Whilst it would be easy for him to get carried away, he spoke candidly of his development within the Lowland League and made reference to stepping out in front a massive home crowd (of almost 40000) for the first time.
‘I’m usually a pretty relaxed guy but being honest, it was a little daunting at first. The Boss just told me to play my normal game and my teammates were brilliant with me too and that allowed me to relax a bit. Playing in the Lowland League has been really good. You are playing against men week in week out, and that is only going to help me. The tempo is obviously a bit faster (in the first team) but, I’ll try and stay in his (GVB’s) eye line and do my best to impress him.’
Its early days as Lowry takes strides into the next steps of his Rangers career, and whilst the level of opposition cannot be ignored, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst said Lowry deserved his chance after impressing in training.
‘You could see his qualities in training the past couple of weeks. Of course, he still has many things to work on but, I’m here to improve my players every day and I gave him a chance because I rate him. I came through the academy at Feyenoord so I know the path players have to take to reach the first team and I think our youth set up is very good. Players like Alex have a long way to go but he is already at a good level, for his age, so I’m very pleased for him.’
For Giovanni Van Bronckhorst this was very much ‘job done’ for Rangers. No fewer than eight changes from Tuesday night’s trip to Pittodrie (nine if you count Lowry’s early introduction) meant it was difficult to fully assess his team’s performance in any great context however, Rangers still had a job to do and Stirling, roared on by a very healthy travelling support, held out until the 31st minute before being unlocked by Lowry and Bacuna. It had been a huge effort from the Albion players, putting bodies on the line and unlucky themselves not to score when Ray Grant, their best player on the night, curled just over with the score still at 0-0. That moment of magic from Lowry seemed to knock the stuffing out of the visitors though, and they could’ve found themselves 3-0 down within minutes as Tavernier scored AND missed from the penalty spot before half-time.
Returning Ranger, Cedric Itten and fans favourite Fashion Sakala completed the scoring in the second half as Rangers cruised to a victory that GVB described as ‘decent’. Most pleasing for the Rangers boss, along with the aforementioned players’ goals, was a return to action for regular first teamers Leon Balogun and Kemar Roofe, providing him with more options at both ends of the field.
‘I’ve used Sakala many times, he is a player that isn’t afraid to take people on and his drive is really good so I expect him to feature in the coming week. I also didn’t bring Itten back just to be on the bench here. I’m happy that he scored and especially happy giving Kemar minutes as he has worked very hard to get back after he came in against Hibs and Lyon’.
The question on every Rangers fans mind is ‘who leads the line against Celtic?’. There is of course the small matter of Livingston and Ross County to negotiate first however it appears, for the moment at least, Gio is very much keeping his options open.
Lee Clark
