The Light Blues made the trip south to face Luton Town Under-21s, suffering a narrow 3-2 defeat despite taking the lead through 17-year-old Chris Eadie.
And Thomson says it was a worthwhile experience for a young Gers B group, which is underlined by the rewarding of a B Team debut for 15-year-old Oliver Goodbrand.
Speaking to the official Rangers website, Thomson said: “It was a great test and I’m delighted about coming down here.
“Luton Town have been excellent with us and it was like a first-team game. The lights were on, it’s the evening, and we had a crowd in, so it was great.
“There’s a huge disappointment because we should have gotten more out of the game.
“The team that we selected had a few older professionals, but we had a lot of young ones.
“Oliver Goodbrand came on and played at left-back; we also had Callum Burnside, Lewis Stewart and Connor Campbell [all born in 2007].
“The boys got some exposure in a stadium which was, let’s not forget, Premier League last year. They were a strong and physical side which we had to deal with.
“All of those dynamics are what we’re trying to do with the programme.
“We all know the expectations that are created by wearing the Rangers jersey, but there’s also the element of a live crowd.
“I have to say we had a lot of Rangers fans who travelled down, so it was good.”
Eadie opened the scoring for Rangers in the first half, but the home side turned the game on its head before the half-time interval to leave the Gers with it all to do in the second period.
The Hatters stretched their lead further after the break and, despite the best efforts of Archie Stevens who pulled one back late on, the young side could not muster an equaliser.
On the display, Thomson added: “We started the game a bit tentatively.
“It was simple mistakes where we gave the ball away and lost the ball in areas where we didn’t want to lose it; instead of playing through pressure we gave the ball away in midfield and got hit on the counter-attack. The second goal before half-time was a penalty.
“We spoke at half-time about being really sure of ourselves and playing football in the right areas of the pitch.
“All of the goals we conceded came about because we never made the right choices.
“We really gave a good account of ourselves in the second half and created a lot of chances.
“We probably could have come away with a draw minimum out of the game, but that’s football.”