The Light Blues controlled the match for long spells and scored some real quality goals to book their place in the next round after impressing against their League Two opponents.
Speaking to RangersTV after the win the head coach has hailed his team for their display after breaking the deadlock through Robbie Fraser’s strike in the first half before going on to control the game in the second period.
He said: “I think we got to a point in the game where you could see a real strong performance, I thought arguably the first 25 minutes we found it different in from what we were challenging. We weren’t quite as aggressive in terms of how we worked physically, and I think that allowed the game just to get to a certain point where we had a lot of questions but weren’t asking enough.
“I thought around the 25-minute mark I thought we had a couple of moments where we really started to turn it up a little bit, got after the ball, quicker after turnover moments, got good opportunities with more patience but asking a lot questions in terms of movement and correlation play around the box, and then Robbie Fraser just changes it.
“That passage of play was a lot more direct; he picks up the second phase by just being really aggressive in his pressing and he scores a sensational goal to get us ahead, and thereafter we really controlled the game and 3-0 was probably a fair result.”
McCallum has highlighted the quality of goals his side scored after adding to Fraser’s strike through a second half finish from Thompson Ishaka and an Alex Lowry penalty.
He continued: “I actually thought the first 25 minutes we were a bit safe; I don’t really think we hit the levels that we have done in recent weeks, but I thought from 25 minutes onwards they really did that in every aspect, sometimes it comes down to we know how good the guys can be.
“We know the talent they have but sometimes it is a bit more than that, just that physical aggression that can be the difference maker and that allows their ability and quality to come through at the same time. Obviously at the start of the second half I thought we really turned it up with two quickfire goals, the first one just a bit of magic again at the edge of the box, a real ounce of class from Lowry that has flicked the ball over and allowed Thompson [Ishaka] to go and fire an excellent finish at the near post.
“Sometimes there is different ways to win the games and today was the first one being really aggressive and pressing and an excellent strike, and the second was just really tight combination play that the lads are capable of doing.”
He went on to praise his goalkeeper and back line on the night as they limited last season’s Lowland League champions to few clear cut opportunities throughout.
He added: “The clean sheet is important, I said to the lads at half time I actually thought that Kieran [Wright] had an excellent save at 0-0, and these fine details can be the differences in games. As much as we had a lot of the possession we always knew there was a threat that Spartans could bring by getting to our box quickly and overloading those spaces in those areas.
“They tried that times and the one clear moment that they had Kieran was excellent at the time that we needed him and thereafter I really enjoyed the second half.
“I really enjoyed the patience and questions we asked and the movement, we probably would have liked to have added one or two more goals but that is just being a little bit selfish based on where we could have got to, it was important that we went and put in a good performance and they did that, we scored some good goals and kept a clean sheet.”
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