Glasgow Cup Win For Colts

Rangers 3 Partick Thistle 0

Tonight’s Glasgow Cup tie was effectively Rangers Colts against a Partick Thistle fringe eleven with the Ibrox youngsters winning comfortably with all the goals coming in the first half.

Rangers had an early chance when Juan Alegria picked the ball up just inside the Thistle half and headed for the penalty area, his pass released Alex Lowry inside the left side of the penalty area but he saw his shot deflected wide of the far post. The opening goal came barely sixty seconds later, Ross McCausland picked the ball up from Robbie Fraser on the right side of the box before cutting inside and firing a shot into Harry Stone’s top  right hand corner.

Rangers came close again just before the quarter hour mark, from Alex Lowry’s free-kick wide on the left Leon King’s glancing header had Harry Stone stretching to clutch under his crossbar. Rangers doubled their lead on twenty six minutes, Ross McCausland was the architect taking on three Thistle defenders on the right hand byline, his ball into the six yard box was hooked into the net by Juan Alegria despite the striker being grounded at the time.

The scoring was completed five minutes before the break, Juan Alegria started and finished the move, he picked the ball up on the halfway line to break forward, his pass to Charlie McCann saw the midfielder flick the ball on to Alex Lowry who saw Harry Stone save his shot low to his left but the Rangers striker was on hand to score with a simple finish.

Half-Time:- Rangers 3 Partick Thistle 0

Thistle were more of a threat after the break although their first two efforts came a couple of minutes either side of the hour mark. Stephen Hendrie’s powerful strike from the left hand angle of the box forced Lewis Budinauckas to dive and turn the ball wide of his right hand post. Around four minutes later Stephen Hendrie sent a corner from the left beyond the back post where Ciaran McKenna headed just wide of the post.

Rangers best chance of the half came with twenty minutes remaining, the attack seemed to have broken down but the ball broke to Charlie McCann who shot straight at Harry Stone from just inside the box. The second half was mainly noted for a series of substitutions by both teams.

Full-Time:- Rangers 3 Partick Thistle 0

Rangers:- Lewis Budinauckas; Kane Ritchie-Hosler, Kyle McClelland (Lewis MacKinnon 72 mins), Leon King, Robbie Fraser; Murray Miller; Cole McKinnon (Tony Weston 78 mins), Charlie McCann; Ross McCausland (Charlie Lindsay 62 mins), Juan Alegria (Chris McKee 72 mins), Alex Lowry (Arron Lyall 72 mins)

Not Used:- Arron Cervantes (Gk)

Partick Thistle :- Harry Stone; Ciaran McKenna, Mohammed Niang, Steven Bell, Stephen Hendrie; Billy Owens (Ben Stanway HT); Blair Lyons, James Lyons (Gospel Ocholi HT): Jake Hastie (Ji Stevenson 72 mins), Shea Gordon (Duncan Laird 65 mins); Ross MacIver.

Not Used:- Mason McCready (Gk)

Footnote:- A Robbie Ure goal was enough to give Rangers U18’s three points as they edged out Hearts at The Orium.