The Light Blues got their first victory of 2023 thanks to an Alex Lowry hat-trick but didn’t have things all go their own way as they had to spend the best part of an hour playing with ten men after Ross McCausland was shown a straight red card for a challenge in the first half.
Speaking to RangersTV after the triumph, the assistant manager praised his side for they how performed having had to play a large spell of the game a man down: ‘’I think overall quite pleasing, you have got to factor in a lot of the things that came into play, I thought the game for 25 minutes we started, there was periods of the game I thought the rhythm and the speed was there without actually cutting the opposition open.
‘’Then obviously Ross’ sending off changes the game towards the back end of the first half, the second half as we come out, I think you look at the conditions, they played a major part in terms of underfoot, and also the wind, probably a poor start for us in terms of the second half, and how we started, conceding the goal, but after that I thought the players came back into the game and controlled it.
‘’I thought we had opportunities, not too many, but I thought we had opportunities second half to go and probably kill the game off quicker than we did, and then Alex gets the third goal to kill the game off, but overall, I thought there was a lot of good stuff in there, a lot of things that probably went against us at times as well’’.
The Rangers B assistant was happy with how the side still pushed to try get more goals and said it shows the character of the team and their display they put on to go and eventually finish off the game.
He continued: ‘’I think there was a period after the sending off that we lost a little bit of momentum, and a bit of rhythm, they obviously changed a little bit as well, and tried to play more in our half, which there was a period of ten minutes where we needed to adapt to it, and I thought we kind of go to grips with what that looked like.
‘’I think it was impressive in terms of the character to go and not just see out the game, because I think sometimes you can get to a point where you’re winning the game, it is 2-0 and you see out the game, I didn’t think we done that, I think we tried to continue to go and try to play in a way that we tried to dominate possession of the ball but we also tried to have a little bit of purpose, when we could get forward, so overall really pleased with that’’.
Gilmour was also full of praise for both the man between the posts, for his outstanding contribution at the end, and the match winner on the night.
He added: ‘’I think if you go to Lewis’ [Budinauckas] save straight away, it is a pivotal moment in the game. I can’t remember how long was on the clock but there couldn’t be too long to go, it has ricocheted back and he has got himself across and made an unbelievable block to keep it at 2-1 at that period of time. The timing of the save is exceptional, it is a big moment in the game.
‘’With Alex we get the third goal, a piece of quality, getting forward and the cut back, it comes to him just inside the box and he goes and puts it in the top corner, we know the quality that Alex possesses and it was a good way to finish the game’’.
Hear more below from Arron Lyall and Brian Gilmour on last night's victory.
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