RANGERS Under-19s kicked off their KDM Evolution Trophy league phase campaign with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Gala Fairydean Rovers at Netherdale Stadium this evening.
Captain Aiden McCallion netted twice for the young Gers, while he was joined on the scoresheet by fellow Queen’s Park loanees Lewis Stewart and Zebedee Lawson.
The side raced out to a three-goal lead in the opening period, with McCallion’s low strike sandwiched between fine goals from Stewart and Lawson, before the 18-year-old added a fourth from 12 yards after the interval.
Malky Thomson was able to call upon a raft of loan players for the competition’s opener, with three of the starting lineup currently also plying their trade for Queen’s Park in the Scottish Championship.
Stewart, who has featured prominently for the Spiders this term, was first to threaten inside five minutes when he met a Callum Burnside corner, but he couldn’t quite stoop to head goalwards and was perhaps guilty of timing his jump too early.
One of his Queen’s Park teammates, meanwhile, went close just 60 seconds later; Lawson chopping inside and back out in typical fashion before his low shot was parried out by the hosts’ goalkeeper.
However, the Gers didn’t need to wait too long to break the deadlock when, having each threatened early in the contest, Lawson teed up Stewart inside the penalty area and the winger picked out the far corner with a composed finish.
The home side were still reeling from the concession of the opener when they were guilty of playing their way into trouble inside their own defensive third. On hand to capitalise was Aiden McCallion, another Spiders loanee, who drove into the penalty area and guided a lovely low finish into the bottom corner.
Callum Burnside soon flashed wide, while moments later Josh Gentles released Stewart in-behind with only the goalkeeper to beat, only for the scorer of the first to dink his finish wide of the post.
The dynamic Lawson was wreaking havoc on the right-hand side for the away side, and he was among the goals to add a third for Rangers when McCallion did terrifically to dig out a cross on the byline and the Englishman rose above his marker inside the six-yard box to power home a header.
A sweeping move from Thomson’s men ten minutes prior to the interval ought to have brought about a fourth goal of the first-half, but after Lawson was picked out tremendously by Arran Kerr – himself latching onto a slide rule pass from Alexander Smith – he could fire his finish straight down the throat of the goalkeeper.
There wasn’t much rearguard action for Rangers to contend with, but they were on the back foot minutes later when the Lowland League outfit burst forward and looked destined to reduce the arrears before Conor Owen produced a wonderful goalline clearance.
The second half began with Burnside jinking his way into a dangerous area on the left, with his low delivery just out of reach of Gentles inside the penalty area.
Thomson’s side certainly weren’t easing up in their pursuit of a fourth as Lawson slid a delicious threaded pass into Gentles whose low rasping effort trickled just inches wide of the far post.
A fourth did, indeed, arrive just beyond the hour-mark when Gentles and Burnside worked a lovely give-and-go before the latter was clipped inside the penalty area.
It was an easy spot for the referee who pointed to the penalty spot where McCallion stepped up to stroke home for the second time on the evening.
There was further encouragement for the Gers in the second half with the 2010-born trio of Kyle Glasgow, Corey Ngwenya and Luca Rankin taking to the pitch, and after a wonderful Greig Thackray save in the dying embers it was all she wrote regarding the scoreline as the young Gers could make the trip back north with their first three points in the competition.
RANGERS: Thackray, Kerr, Wyllie (Ngwenya, 70), Owen, Young, McCallion, Smith (Fernie, 60), Burnside (Rankin, 78), Lawson (Cameron, 70), Stewart (Glasgow, 60), Gentles
Subs not used: S. Reid, Ramage, Wark, Hutton
GALA FAIRYDEAN ROVERS: Murray, MacPherson (Tomany, 75), Fagan, Hall, Galbraith (Kasa, 70), Reilly, Dougal (Strickland, 70), Campbell, Cancello (MacDonald, 50), Lyons, Denholm
Subs not used: Chalmers, Kuchciak, Clare, Green, Lamb
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