DAVID McCallum allowed himself a wry smile when Alex Lowry’s individual performance was raised in the Ibrox press room yesterday.

“There’s things that come naturally to him,” he said with a nod to the touches, spins and passes performed to a delighting Ibrox crowd during a 3-0 Old Firm win. “Our challenge is to keep pushing him in other areas.”

Lowry was one of many superb individual performers at a sun-kissed Ibrox on Saturday afternoon. He scored from 25 yards, played countless reverse balls into gaps opened only by his suggestive stance that instead looked set to open the pitch and released passes through the lines scarcely seen at first-team level. This was of course an opportunity for the entire B team, playing in front of a strong crowd at Ibrox. Ross McCausland’s goal after just 18 seconds demonstrated just how keen they were to make an impression; the winger intercepting a pass high up the pitch and finishing when through one-v-one.

The entire occasion was a taste of first-team life and that moment encapsulated its most attractive element. Celebrating a goal in this tie before either side had even settled into their shape. Usurpingly, the entire team ran straight for the 9000 strong Sandy Jardine stand.

Aggressive attacks continued to follow. Not content with allowing the game to fall into a slow pattern following the early opener, the hosts sat narrow and in moments pressed aggressively. In McCallum’s words, they wanted to ‘guide Celtic into the sides of the pitch’ where the touchline handily acts as an extra defender.

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“We wanted to direct the game into areas of the pitch where we felt we could get more bodies than them, we could get contact and not only get close to people but get contact with the ball,” he said.

“We wanted to guide them into the sides, I felt that was the area of the pitch where we could get joy and off the back of that because of where the front line pressure was coming from when we regained the ball we had bodies high up the pitch to go and play.”

The visitors saw routes forward stunted by the intelligent marking approach that achieved this goal. Tony Weston marked Celtic’s defensive midfielder while Lowry and McCaudland tucked inside to pressurise either centre-back, with the team given license to jump up and join once a pass was played wide.

“You see that on the back of the second goal especially for Alex Lowry,” McCallum added. “Once we got the regain and got Alex facing forward against the backline, it’s a threat.”

After Charlie McCann regained possession and played through Lowry the midfielder capitalised on the situation as his manager expected, finding the net with a remarkably low backlift from all of 25 yards.

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The second team must of course reflect the first team’s philosophy and McCallum’s set-up relied on principles established under Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Steven Gerrard. There was the central compactness and solidity of Gerrard’s 4-3-3, allowing attackers to stay in high areas, combined with van Bronckhorst’s trademark third-man midfield runs and recognisable rotations down either flank.

It was the latter of these that proved the catalyst for the third. Robbie Fraser constantly rotated with Lowry throughout to escape the attention of markers and after the left-back got on the ball with space to hit behind the opposition defence, Tony Weston timed his run perfectly and slotted home.

Celtic didn’t trouble Jay Hogarth once throughout the entire tie and if another goal were to have been scored, the hosts would have been responsible. The exhilaration of that opening 25 minutes was always going to be difficult to retain and eventually the tempo dropped.

Rangers' work was complete by this stage and they controlled the second half without adding to their advantage. On a day of opportunity, the whole team took their chance and Lowry rather predictably stood out amongst the rest.