There was little to separate the teams for the majority of the contest as Morgyn Neill cancelled out Ross McCausland’s opener, but the young Gers’ persistence and quality was rewarded late in the contest as they netted three times inside the final six minutes through 16-year-old Findlay Curtis, James Graham and Arron Lyall to seal a home clash with Airdrieonians in the next round.
Indeed, the Light Blues wasted precious little time in establishing their superiority in the early exchanges as they broke the deadlock inside six minutes. A diagonal pass from Robbie Fraser in search of Archie Stevens was knocked down only as far as McCausland who picked up the second ball. The Northern Irishman then strode into space on the edge of the penalty area, shrugging off the attentions of an Alloa defender before planting an unerring finish into the bottom corner.
It was one-way traffic in the opening blows as the young Gers went close through Zak Lovelace less than 60 seconds later after the Englishman was released into the left-hand side of the penalty area by Paul Nsio.
Rangers couldn’t quite believe they hadn’t doubled their advantage before the contest had ticked beyond the 10th minute mark. Such were the volume of bodies inside the Wasps’ penalty area that the ball ricocheted off goalscorer McCausland and fell invitingly to defender Johnly Yfeko. The 20-year-old couldn’t quite lift his effort over Tochukwu Ogayi in the Alloa goal, allowing Stevens to feed the ball back to Greig Allen at the edge of the penalty area whose goalbound effort was tipped round for a corner.
The Gers had been hitherto untroubled before Bradley Rodden latched onto a hopeful pass in-behind and Mason Munn was quick off his goalline to thwart the attacker’s driven finish.
Ogayi was next to be prompted into action when Lovelace’s powerful effort looked destined to ripple the back of the Alloa goal, with the Wasps stopper producing a fantastic acrobatic save to deny the 17-year-old.
The threat from Brian Rice’s side may have been reduced to the fleeting counter-attack, but they were inches away from levelling when the ball broke to Rodden from a quick transition and he contrived to steer his finish off target.
Jack Harkness’ headed clearance on the goalline from a corner kept the scoreline intact as the League One side slowly began to make inroads in the contest after Rangers’ lively opening.
Paul Nsio produced an audacious flick on the byline which brought the Cappielow crowd to their feet, but it was Munn down the opposite end who was picking the ball out of the back of his net just a minute shy of the interval. The Light Blues thought they had survived the danger when Quinn Coulson’s curling effort crashed off the crossbar, but Morgyn Neill in Alloa colours was first to react to the rebound and he made no mistake in finishing beyond the Gers goalkeeper.
The Wasps fashioned the first opportunity of the second period when Scott Taggart skipped inside, although his effort was wayward and left Munn untroubled in the Gers goal.
Rangers pieced together a promising move on the stroke of the hour-mark when Robbie Fraser’s tantalising delivery from the left was met from 10 yards out by Nsio. The 17-year-old glanced his header only inches wide of the far post, although the linesman was quick to raise his flag for offside.
David McCallum turned to his substitutes bench for the first time in the evening as Jack Harkness and Zak Lovelace, both of whom are early into their injury returns, were replaced by Zander Hutton and 2007-born Chris Eadie.
The heavens suddenly opened in Greenock, creating tricky underfoot conditions as the Gers pushed for a winning goal in normal time. Arron Lyall was unfortunate with an outside-of-the-boot pass into Eadie that the young forward could not bring under control.
McCausland was next to threaten for the Light Blues when he collected a raking pass from Lyall on the right-hand side and drove menacingly into the danger area. Lifting his head, the 20-year-old couldn’t pick out a Rangers body as the Wasps hacked the ball to safety.
A threatening set-piece from Rice’s side almost broke the Gers’ resolve six minutes from time as Taggart’s powerful header sailed into the grateful arms of Munn.
That would prove the precursor to Rangers finding the winning goal less than 60 seconds later. McCausland’s stabbed through ball looked to have sent Fraser too wide, but the defender dug out a pull-back to substitute Curtis who lashed a terrific finish under Ogayi and into the far corner.
There was still time for the Light Blues to find a third goal of the evening and put the icing on the cake. Curtis turned the architect on this occasion, stealing possession in a dangerous area in the final third and squaring the ball to James Graham who had the simplest of tasks in stroking the ball into an empty net.
Three soon became four at Cappielow as the Light Blues were awarded a penalty in stoppage time after Eadie was felled by Ogayi as he looked to round the Alloa goalkeeper. Lyall assumed penalty duties and made no mistake in dispatching into the bottom corner to round off a fantastic evening in Greenock.
RANGERS B: Munn, Harkness (Hutton, 62), Allen, Yfeko (Graham, 53), Fraser, Lyall, Allan, Nsio, McCausland, Stevens (Curtis, 78), Lovelace (Eadie, 62)
Subs not used: Halliwell, Newton, Grant, McInally, Robertson
ALLOA ATHLETIC: Ogayi, Taggart, Neill, McKay (Graham, 80), Buchanan (O’Donnell, 76), Deveney, Heatherington, Roberts, Rodden (Cannon, 80), Donnelly, Coulson (Sammon, 60)
Subs not used: Burt
REFEREE: Lloyd Wilson