Alex Lowry: How Rangers teen went from nervous wreck to first team star

Rangers teenager Alex Lowry went from a nervous wreck on the training pitch to star in the first team, manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has revealed.

Rangers' Alex Lowry impressed again in the 1-0 win over Livingston. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The 18-year-old attacking midfielder has shone in his first two appearances for the Ibrox side after stepping into the starting XI in place of the injured Ianis Hagi.

The Scotland youth international scored on his senior debut just minutes after coming off the bench in the 4-0 win over Stirling Albion in the Scottish Cup last Friday.

He then followed that up with a stand-out performance in the 1-0 win over Livingston in his first Scottish Premiership outing on Wednesday night.

Lowry’s confidence has been apparent, but van Bronckhorst admitted that the youngster was a bag of nerves when he initially joined the first-team training at Auchenhowie before his talent eventually shone through.

“Of course it’s his talent. His confidence was always there,” he said.

“I think the first training session he joined (the first team) he was a bit nervous. You could tell.

“He was making a lot of mistakes actually in things he can do well.

“You could see he can control the ball well, he can pass it. But at first he made many mistakes in that.

“But after he was a little bit more settled and you saw his confidence coming back. You could see the Alex you see now on the pitch with moments where he’s very dangerous and very energetic and creating dangerous chances.

“At times you also saw his youthfulness when he had to pay faster but that’s a normal process for him. I’m really pleased for him with the way he’s performing just now.

“We have to make sure we keep pushing him to become better.”

Van Bronckhorst added that Lowry has been given his chance due to absences, the youngster is being selected on merit.

“Of course he’s playing because we are missing a lot of players but he also plays because he has the ability to play," he added.

"Now with Joe [Aribo] back and Scott [Arfield] back, the competition is high but he has to go on and play like this and we will see in which games we will use him to give him the chance to get minutes.”

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