The young midfielder captained the side last night as a much improved second half showing unfortunately failed to yield the equaliser they merited against League One outfit Stenhousemuir.
Speaking to RangersTV after the game, the teenager said of the challenge: "It was different to what we're used to in the league.
"There were more long balls and having to deal with long kicks from the goalkeeper, and it was about trying to smooth the game out and impose our game.
"It was a good test and I thought we settled into it after the first half and played much better.
"There are still a lot more games to be played and we'll definitely improve.
"That was the first fixture so we know what we're going to expect at times. It's going to help us strengthen and be ready for the next five [fixtures]."
McCallion wore the captain's armband in Stenhousemuir and was an impressive performer in a second half where Rangers reduced arrears through a first goal in the competition from Ben Hutton.
However, the youngster concedes that the side gave themselves too much to do following a disappointing first half display.
He added: "We never started the game well enough. We never played with enough intensity.
"We actually started alright in the first ten minutes, but after that it wasn't good enough.
"It was perhaps a little bit of a shock from when they scored that goal. In this type of environment we struggled to group together again and get back in the game. We need to improve in that for next time.
"Rightly so [Stevie Smith] gave us a bit because I think we needed to come out and be so much better. Liam [Ross] gave us some tactical stuff that we could perhaps tweak and I thought we put it into place in the second half. It looked a lot more like us.
"Credit to the subs coming on. They obviously wanted to start, but they've come on, done the job, and given us the boost that we needed.
"Ben's goal helped us. It gave us a kick again and the last 20 minutes we looked as if we were going to score again. It was disappointing that we never got a goal in the end."
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