Rangers 6 Bury 0: Over 40,000 watch Gerrard make winning home debut

An assembly of 41,015 gathered at Ibrox on a radiant summer night for the occasion of a pre-season against EFL opposition who were relegated to League Two last season. The multitude came not to bury Bury, however, but to hail their Caesar, in the form of Steven Gerrard, in his first match in charge at home.

The blue legions were in raucous voice almost continually throughout the proceedings and treated Gerrard’s summer signings to a preview of the bedlam that will be triggered if the former Liverpool and England skipper can make any significant inroad into Celtic’s domination of the Scottish game. Five of his incomers were on display, amongst whom Allan McGregor did not find the scene novel, as he embarked upon his second spell with the club after an absence of six years.

In front of the goalkeeper was a new centre-back pairing, the Croatian Nikola Katic alongside Connor Goldson, formerly of Brighton. On the left, Jon Flanagan completed a back four in which only James Tavernier had played last season. In midfield, Scott Arfield made up the quintet of imports.

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Ryan Lowe had reinforced Bury, too, and Tom Miller, formerly of Carlisle United, began at right-back with Matt Hudson, on loan from Preston until January, wearing the keeper’s jersey. By the end of the evening, Hudson was in danger of suffering curvature of the spine, having been forced to retrieve the ball from his net on half-a-dozen occasions.

Rangers’ movers against the Shakers were Arfield, with a double, Katic, Jamie Murphy, Alfredo Morelos and Zak Rudden. Arfield was named man of the match but it was Murphy who scored the first home goal of the Gerrard era after only seven minutes, when he snapped on to the rebound from a blocked attempt by Morelos.

Almost totally dominant, Rangers doubled their advantage on the half hour, as Katic, prowling on the edge of the box, let fly with a low shot which Hudson allowed to squirm through his grasp, although he might have been deceived when the ball bobbled on its way towards the net.

Hudson did better 10 minutes before half-time by getting a glove on a drive from Murphy, but Arfield was on to the rebound to make it 3-0. To judge by Gerrard’s totally impassive demeanour at each of the goals, he was evidently getting no more than he expected from his new charges, a perspective that can only have been reinforced when Bury won their only corner-kick of the half and played it straight to the nearest Rangers defender.

After the restart, Arfield set Josh Windass free for a shot which beat Hudson but skipped off the base of the post. Ryan Jack was next to turn provider, midway through the half, with a prompt for Arfield to find the mark with his second of the evening.

“I loved it, absolutely loved it,” Arfield said. “I can only imagine what it was like to be a Bury player in front of 40,000-odd. It was a night to implement what we want to do. It was far from perfect and there are things we will dissect but what a start for people to be excited and get on the rollercoaster.

“I want to be as fit as possible and get into positions. I want to score as many as possible. We’re going through the hardest pre-season I’ve ever done. Talk is cheap and we’ll see next Thursday against Shkupi (in the Europa League) but we’re in a very good place.”

Morelos, who had been scampering like an agitated spaniel, headed home from a short corner and Zak Rudden came on to complete the rout with a point-blank finish. By the final whistle, each side had used 11 substitutes and Gerrard demonstrated a touch of class by sending on all of his players back to salute the crowd and waited to shake hands with every one of the Bury contingent as they left the field.

“It was pleasing, exactly what we were looking for - a good, strong, positive win full of energy,” said Gerrard. “We asked for desire and commitment and saw lots of that. The most pleasing thing for me was the clean sheet because we’ve spoken to the team over the last 16, 17 days about how important it is to be a difficult team to play against.

“Teams who come into this stadium need to start fearing us, fearing Rangers again and what Rangers are about.

“There is tons still to do here. We’re 16, 17 days in, we’re still getting used to each other, the players and staff and I’m still finding my feet around the city, but in terms of a platform for the players and the staff, so far, so good. I’m reasonably pleased.

“The turnout was fantastic. Close to 40,000 here for a friendly and, with all due respect, it’s not one of the glamour friendlies. AC Milan or Real Madrid haven’t rolled in here, when you’d expect it to be full. It’s holiday time, a lot of people are away from home.

“I said to the players in the dressing room, ‘Look, there are no excuses out there, the pitch is fantastic, they have come to see you, they are going to walk away with opinions, they are going to nudge you tonight, this is the first time we’re going to get judged, you’ve got a responsibility as a Rangers player to excite and entertain them’.

“And they have gone out there and delivered.”

All except one. Out of all of the players named by both sides, Stephen Kelly alone did not make an appearance. Gerrard’s consolation for his under-20 midfielder?

“You can only play 22...”