The 17-year-old was brought down for both penalties in the first half, which bookended his neat lay-off for Bailey Rice’s long-range strike, before teeing up Thompson Ishaka and Josh McPake after the interval to round off the scoring.
Speaking to RangersTV after the victory, Lovelace beamed: “Normally I wouldn’t really enjoy a game if I don’t score, but I got five assists and I feel happy!
“I feel like we had a lot of control. They did have spells where they kept the ball for a bit, but we were relaxed in the way that we handled it because we moved like a team and controlled it. We showed our quality when we did get on the ball, and that’s why we scored five goals.
“The other side of the game is also important because you can score as many goals as you want, but if you don’t have other parts of your game then you’re just half a player.”
The Englishman has been involved in Michael Beale’s first-team squad in pre-season, and he believes that the experience of training with established players has helped refine his game.
He added: “It shows in the big games where you can only really use one or two touches. That’s why I tried to use just one or two touches today, to move the ball quicker, in order to get moves started.
“I love playing alongside Alex [Lowry] especially as he can hit passes that I feel no other player can hit. It’s lovely playing alongside him. I also love playing with Thompson as we can run together, both of us are quick so it’s nice to have someone to run with.”
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