DAVID McCALLUM has challenged his Rangers B players to impress new boss Philippe Clement as the Belgian cast his eye over this afternoon’s clash against Breidablik.
The Light Blues fell to a narrow 3-2 defeat against the UEFA Europa Conference League outfit at the Rangers Training Centre, presented by Park’s Motor Group, but there was plenty of positives to take as Ross McCausland and Connor Allan found the scoresheet.
And McCallum says it’s important that his players catch the eye of the new first-team manager as he looks to shape his squad over the coming months.
Speaking to RangersTV after the match, McCallum commented: “We’re obviously going through a managerial change at first-team level and adapting one or two different pieces. The group today was a combination of lads from the first-team and B Team squad.
“There are different reasons why today’s game was important. The fact that the players need to impress themselves as much as anything, but more importantly they need to impress the manager and today was the first chance to do that.
“The younger lads that are making their way in the game and finding a way to go and stand out in a men’s game against a team who are at the top of their country.
“Ultimately the players need to show that they can perform; not just be there and cope, but go and show what they’re capable of bringing to our first-team in the near future.
“Losing the game is never nice, but there were parts in the game that made it a proper game. They were really aggressive and made it difficult for us at key moments in the game.”
Rangers were competitive across the 90 minutes against their Icelandic opposition, levelling proceedings midway through the first half through McCausland.
However, a brief spell prior to the interval allowed Breidablik to build a commanding position that rendered Allan’s stoppage time volley worthless in terms of the scoreline.
McCallum continued: “We knew it was going to be a tough game. We’re talking about a team who came through the qualification process of the Champions League, working themselves into the Europa League, and are now competing in the Europa Conference League which they’ve got a game in on Thursday evening against Gent.
“This was their preparation for that, so we knew it was a tough game and equivalent to the OH Leuven match earlier this season.
“We are clearly frustrated at one or two of the goals, but it was a game that could have went either way at 1-1 and we obviously lost the two goals at that stage. It was a strong start to the second half, but we never managed to quite get ourselves back into a point where we could have gotten a draw.”