Giovanni van Bronckhorst happy with Rangers progress after win in Blackpool ahead of ‘very big week’

Giovanni van Bronckhorst looked forward to “a very big week” after Rangers’ 2-1 friendly win over Blackpool at Bloomfield Road.

In front of a huge travelling support and in game which saw a raft of second-half substitutions, defender Borna Barisic opened the scoring just after the break with a terrific finish before Northern Ireland Under-21 midfielder Charlie McCann made a telling impact after coming on as a substitute to volley in a second goal.

Blackpool substitute Beryly Lubala scored past Jon McLaughlin for a late consolation.

New signings Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo and John Souttar all got some game time and now Rangers host West Ham in a friendly on Tuesday night before Tottenham visit Ibrox next Saturday for the Gers’ final friendly ahead of their Premiership opener at Livingston on July 30.

Van Bronckhorst told RangersTV: “We have given players a lot of minutes heading into the last week when we still have West Ham and Tottenham so it is looking good.

“I am happy with the win today and I’m happy with the work my players have done and we go back now to Glasgow and prepare for the last week.

“It is a very big week, you see the fitness levels are going up and it was good to see John Souttar, Rabbi Matondo and Tom Lawrence so I am really happy that everyone featured in today’s game.”

After last week’s friendly against Sunderland in Portugal was postponed due to a half-time power failure, the Dutchman was pleased with the intensity of the workout against Sky Bet Championship side Blackpool.

He said: “I thought it was a good game for us, we were 45 minutes short last week so we weren’t able to rotate the full squad to give minutes so for some players it was their first game.

“It was good to see Glen Kamara and Ryan Jack get their first minutes and in the end I am very happy with the performance.

“I think we showed intensity and a good passing game but at the end of course we were not happy with the goal against us.”