Rangers kicked their first friendly ball of the season yesterday when they took on Partick Thistle at Auchenhowie, given Ian McCall’s links to the clubs and the youngsters we have sent on loan to Firhill in recent years, it would appear that we have a close relationship with the Championship side and city neighbours.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men are still in the infancy of pre-season training with some not even back from international duty, others like Alfredo Morelos, Ianis Hagi, Kemar Roofe and Filip Helander have not yet reached the intensity of session required to play games.
With so many players missing, it was always going to be an interesting line-up and it didn’t disappoint.
Rangers ran out 3-2 winners with John Lundstram and Fashion Sakala putting us 2-1 up at half-time, Scott Wright instrumental in both goals but it will have been a useful run out for a side featuring four academy players in the first-half and almost a full set in the second when a whole new XI came out, Josh McPake scoring our third.
There isn’t usually much to be taken from these games but the absences of Allan McGregor and Ryan Kent has to be one, as does the inclusion of Glenn Middleton, Stephen Kelly, Jack Simpson and Niko Katic, all of whom are either in the last year of their contract or expected to leave.
It’s certainly a front four with plenty of pace, however, I would be very surprised to see it again, the chances of Scott Arfield being deployed in a deeper midfield role is also unlikely.
The “proper” pre-season stuff doesn’t start for a couple of weeks yet but it’s great to see that we are going to be better prepared than last season when not a single game inspired any confidence ahead of the Champions League qualifiers – this time, has to be different.