Report: Rangers B Defeat Dumbarton At The Rock

by: Heather Miller

RANGERS B welcomed the challenge tonight beating Dumbarton in their first competitive trophy tie this season.

The young Gers will now face Ayr United in the next round of the Challenge Cup after scoring three goals in their first game of the competition.

David McCallum’s boys started with two under 18’s in his Challenge Cup line up in tonight’s game competing against a League One team.

Both sides-built pace throughout the first 45 minutes, fighting for the ball and creating opportunities for themselves.

Rangers pressed high on the Dumbarton side from the referee’s whistle, entering the final third and the box to put pressure on the Dumbarton defence.

Cole McKinnon took an early strike outside the box, sending Callum Erskine diving for the ball, but it fell just wide of the post.

Dumbarton made a dangerous cross into the Rangers box, but no yellow shirts were able to connect with the ball and it was collected by Robbie Fraser to clear.

Jake Hastie opened the scoring to put the Light Blues ahead in the first half. The forward took an excellent first touch to set up his strike from outside the box sending the ball past the hands of the keeper into the bottom right-hand corner.

Only a few minutes later, Lowry made it two for the young Gers. Devine drove down the right-hand wing to deliver a dangerous cross into a busy box meeting the feet of Lowry who calmly tapped it into the net.

This gave Gers all the momentum, and the boys continued to play with pace, creating plenty of chances challenging the Dumbarton side with Lewis Budinaukas making important saves as well.

Charlie McCann nearly got his debut goal after dancing the ball around several defenders outside the box, Erskine just got a hand to his powerful strike keeper to deny the youngsters a third. Later, he made a run forward into the box driving past the Sons backline to take another shot on target but the keeper got another arm to it to push it over the crossbar.

The home side increased their pressure in the second half challenging the Gers defenders, but they kept a strong backline, clearing crosses and making interceptions to deny their opponents as few shots on goal as possible.

Rangers continued to pile on the pressure within the Dumbarton half and managed to get the third goal to seemingly put the game to bed. Charlie McCann again made a fantastic run down the middle past a number of Dumbarton players. He made it into the box and chipped the ball over the head of a yellow shirt to link up with Tony Weston who fired it low into the back of the net.

Dumbarton managed to get a goal back in the last minutes of the match after being awarded a free-kick a few yards from the box. Wilson took the cross and the ball met the head of Buchanan.

Seconds later, Dumbarton made it two after Wilson had sight on goal.

The tension was building in the last few minutes of the game, but the B Team maintained their composure to see through the game and enter the next round of the SPFL Trust Trophy.

RANGERS: BUDINAUKAS, DEVINE, FRASER, KATIC (69), MCCLELLAND, MCCANN, LOWRY (69), MCKINNON (77), WESTON, LINDSAY (85), HASTIE (77).

SUBS; HOGARTH, KING (69), MACKINNON, MILLER (77), STRACHAN, RITCHIE-HOSLER (85), LYALL (77), MCKEE (69), URE.

DUMBARTON: ERSKINE, LYNCH (60), MCGEEVER, BUCHANAN, BOYLE, CARSWELL (60), PIGNATIELLO, GEGGAN, HOPKIRK (69), MACLEAN (77), ORSI (69).

SUBS: MUIR, SYVERTSEN (69), WILSON (69), MALEY, PATON (60), MCKNIGHT, STOKES (77), DUTHIE, SCHIAVONE (60).

📽️ PRE-MATCH | B Team Head Coach David McCallum spoke to @RangersTV ahead of tonight's exciting SPFL Trust Trophy fixture.

👉 Hear what he had to say here... pic.twitter.com/jZ6xSU3Xvy
— Rangers B & Academy (@RFC_Youth) August 11, 2021

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