A first half own goal by Robbie Horn’s side wasn’t enough for the Light Blues as the visitors fought back in the second half to secure the victory.
The young Gers were back in action tonight as they took on the league winners in front of the home support.
McCallum named six changes to his squad following their last domestic game against Celtic B at Ibrox with Lewis Budinauckas replacing Jay Hogarth in goals.
That meant it was a back four of Jack Harkness, Johnly Yfeko, Leon King and Kyle McClelland.
Murray Miller, Arron Lyall, and Robbie Fraser were in the midfield, with Robbie Ure, Kane Ritchie-Hosler and Tony Weston up front for the Light Blues.
The youngsters started the game at a fast pace against the league champions, and they did well to pressurise the visitors’ backline early on, but their back four did well to break down the Gers threat.
Bonnyrigg also began to threaten the Gers defence in the opening stages, but King and McClelland defended well to intercept their efforts.
Ure was close to finding the opening goal on 23 minutes after picking the ball up on the edge of the box, but his effort was held well by Mark Weir.
Horn’s side thereafter pressed the Light Blues high as they also looked to find an opportunity to break through the backline. Scott Gray got on the end of a cleared cross and advanced towards the Rangers goal, but Miller made a superb interception to disrupt the threat.
On 26 minutes, Arron Lyall was next on the attack for the home side when he delivered a powerful strike towards the top corner, but the keeper made a great save by getting a good touch to send it over the crossbar.
Ritchie-Hosler made some lovely build-up play down the right side to break past the Bonnyrigg backline when he sent a great delivery towards the back post, but no one was able to connect with his effort.
The Gers pressing play finally paid off after a 34th minute own goal from Neil Martynuik. Robbie Fraser sent a dangerous looking cross into an on-running Ure, the Bonnyrigg defender intercepted the delivery and passed it to Weir, but the keeper couldn’t collect the ball and it rolled beyond the goal line to put the home side one-up heading towards the half-time break.
Into the second half and the youngsters looked to build on their one goal advantage but despite some early positive passages of play, it was the visitors who scored first in the second half.
Bonnyrigg were awarded a penalty in the 60-minute mark after McClelland brought down Dean Brett in the box. Martynuik stood up to the penalty spot to take it the shot and was able to send an effort past Budinauckas, making up for his first half own goal.
The visitors looked eager to dominate play after this and found the opportunity to take the lead on 70 minutes after Sean Brown netted the second for his side. Brown collected the ball from a throw in and managed to find some space to fire a low shot into the bottom right of the goal past Budinauckas.
The young Gers did have a chance in the dying minutes of the game after Tony Weston found himself one-on-one with the Bonnyrigg keeper. However, it was not to be as the danger was cleared, with the match finishing in victory for the visitors.
RANGERS: Budinauckas, Harkness, Yfeko (Strachan, 71), King, McClelland, Miller, Lyall (Pasnik, 90), Fraser, Ure, Ritchie-Hosler, Weston.
UNUSED SUBS: Cervantes, Allan, McInally, Dunlop.
BONNYRIGG ROSE: Weir, Brett, Martynuik, Home, Stewart, Hunter (Hall, 76), Gray (Gray, 76), Wilson, Barret, Connolly, Brown (Evans, 76)
UNUSED SUBS: Young, Andrews.
REFEREE: Kieran Trayne
ASSISTANT REFEREE: Alan Grainer and Kenneth Allen
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