The return of Rangers to pre-season over the last week has progressed to the first outing on the pitch with a training game against Partick Thistle on Saturday.
In a closed doors game at Auchenhowie, over 20 players were given game time to put minutes into the legs as the hosts recorded a 3-2 win against Ian McCall’s team.
A mix of regulars and squad players in the first half became almost an entire B side for the second half, with quite a few grabbing their chance to impress.
The training camp in Portugal will get underway on Tuesday, starting the build up to the first proper friendly over the next few weeks, with Sunderland providing the opposition in Albufeira on Saturday evening.
Rangers TV provided brief highlights of the Partick game, covering the goals from John Lundstram, Fashion Sakala and Josh McPake as well as an insight to other moments of impact.
Rangers faced Partick Thistle in our first pre-season friendly on Saturday in a 3-2 victory at Rangers Training Centre.
🗒️ Match Report & Gallery: https://t.co/0OOxhEhEtO
📺 RangersTV subscribers can watch match Highlights: https://t.co/XDPP8MKnvp pic.twitter.com/1qP7I6ft6I— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) July 3, 2022
The following players all made a contribution:
Starting line-up – McLaughlin, Tavernier, Lundstram, Goldson, S. Wright, Sakala, Arfield, Middleton, King, Lowry, Devine.
SUBS – McCrorie, K. Wright, Simpson, Sands, Katic, Zukowski, Kelly, McPake, McCann, Richie-Hosler, Weston, McCausland, McKinnon, Fraser, Miller, Ure.
Three talking points to consider
– The usual suspects. Rightly, there are some concerns at this Rangers team being asked to produce the goods for another year. As it stands, we still largely have Steven Gerrard’s team, with the influence and flavour of Gio van Bronckhorst clearly visible. Even in this training game, we saw trademark Tavernier runs, a piledriver Lundstram finish and Goldson patrolling the defence. The ability is still there, but freshness has to follow soon.
– Reasons to be cheerful. Scott Wright showed some dangerous bursts. Lowry was his useful expressive self, despite being at fault for Thistle’s first goal. Mat Zukowski looked very dangerous with Charlie McCann and young striker, Robbie Ure also showed up well from the RTV coverage.
– Many changes ahead. This was a bounce game, a training exercise. Anyone criticising the line-up, result or individuals on this game solely, can’t be taken seriously. Over the next month, there will be plenty of activity. There are some places to play for as well as transfer activity to take place, both arrivals and departures. The international players also rejoin the squad this week. Can some youth and squad players step-up to produce a surprise? Unexpected first team departure to come? All that and more is on the way as the preparations continue.
New players, signing news. That is what we all want to see for the essential injection of quality and inspiration.