Aaron Ramsey 'really lively' on first Rangers start as Giovanni van Bronckhorst rates Annan performance

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst praised Aaron Ramsey for his contribution to the 3-0 Scottish Cup victory over Annan Athletic at Galabank.

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst during his team's 3-0 Scottish Cup win against Annan Athletic at Galabank on Saturday evening. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

The on-loan Juventus star played for 61 minutes in his first start for the Scottish champions as first half goals from Filip Helander, Kemar Roofe and Fashion Sakala booked a place in Monday night’s quarter-final draw.

There were plenty of positives for van Bronckhorst at Galabank as Helander returned to action after a five-month injury lay-off, midfielder Steven Davis made his first start since early December and Polish under-21 international right-back Mateusz Zukowski made his debut. It was the step-up in Ramsey’s match fitness, after two brief sub outings against Hearts and Hibs, which was perhaps the most encouraging aspect of a routine win over League 2 opponents.

“You can see that Aaron wants to play football and enjoy it,” said van Bronckhorst. “You could see that in the first half. He was asking for the ball and tried to find openings. He scored a goal but was offside. He looked really lively so I’m happy for him to play for an hour.

“I’m also pleased for Helander to come back and Davis to get more minutes. We played some youngsters at the end and Mateusz had a really good debut as well.

“We wanted to start really well and if you play well from the beginning you can decide the match, which we did in the first half.

“The circumstances weren’t great with the wind and the rain but I’m happy with the result and the players who got minutes today."

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