Rangers B manager fumes after 'horror' tackle sees Alex Lowry stretchered off

Rangers B manager David McCallum has blasted Dumbarton’s Ally Love over a tackle that saw emerging talent Alex Lowry stretchered off during a Challenge Cup match.

Lowry had been instrumental in his side’s 7-0 win, scoring a hat-trick, but a lunging tackle from Love in the second half saw him unable to continue and carried from the pitch.

Former Clyde player Love was shown a yellow card for the challenge.

It’s not yet clear how serious the injury is to the playmaker, who has made the breakthrough to the fringes of the Rangers first team over the last year, but McCallum was furious at the treatment of the talented young player.

Asked if he was pleased with the emphatic scoreline, the manager said: “No, I’m actually quite angry.

“I’ve just watched one of our brightest talents get a tackle that I thought was wrong.

“I thought at the time the game was already gone and there was no need for that to happen. We’ve now got someone sitting in that dressing room who has got a real sore one.

“I want to talk to our players about a really strong performance but right now my emotions are more about concern for Alex.

“I’ve watched it back and it was wrong.”

McCallum said that Lowry was still in pain in the dressing room and said that Love’s challenge had gone “way beyond the line appropriate for that time.

Lowry played 7 times for Rangers last season and McCallum explained that after injury, the plan was to build the player up to be competing for a place in Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side again.

“We’ve seen Alex get the hat trick and get close to the levels that saw him get into the first team,” he said. “It’s been a slow burner this season because he was coming from injury in the early part of the season.

“Today was an opportunity to get more minutes into him on the pitch and these are the reasons we had him in these games. So that eventually the first team would start looking at him again for contention.

“So that’s a sore one tonight.”