Alex Lowry ended last season on a high, the talented Gers teen looking every inch a potential first team star of the now, never mind the future.
It was hoped that this season would see Lowry play a bigger role under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, however, a pre-season injury and lack of fitness has seen him return to the B team.
He’s obviously too good a player for that level but an outing against League 2 leaders Dumbarton was a good way to get some valuable minutes into his legs – this was the plan anyway.
At 7-0 up, after scoring a hat-trick, and in the 90th minute, Lowry clipped a lovely ball to the back post only for opposition striker Ally Love to lunge into him from behind sending the Scotland youth cap flying.
This is the assault on Alex Lowry and it IS an assault. A cowardly, deliberate attempt to injure a teenager because he gave him the runaround. Absolutely vile. pic.twitter.com/gPmrTUvt69
— Heart & Hand Podcast (@ibroxrocks) August 23, 2022
Lowry was said to be “distressed” after the game by B team manager David McCallum and who can blame him, the tackle ticked every box to be a red card offence and yet Love only saw yellow.
It’s another damning incident for officials this week in the SPFL, two Ross County players were cited after getting away with fouls that could easily have injured opponents but it looks as though Lowry hasn’t been so lucky to escape unharmed.
If Love’s name sounds familiar by the way, he was found guilty of racism a few years ago and banned for five games – going out to injure an opponent in the last minute at 7-0 down being his latest deplorable act.
Hopefully, the authorities will act but, again, it’s too little, too late. Until Scottish football gets itself out of the dark ages, talented players like Lowry will always be targets for those not fit to share the same pitch.