Rangers drubbed at Kidsgrove

A deflating day for Rangers saw them thumped 5-1 by a team two levels below them in the non-league pyramid, the Seddon Stadium club having the last laugh again after lifting the Staffordshire Senior Cup at the expense of their visitors in April.

This time a brace from David Walker and a strike from Matt Haddrell gave the home side an unassailable 3-0 lead at the interval, added to by goals from Tom Schwartz and Tom Moss in the second-half.

Sub Courtney Shaw - a former Rangers youth teamer back at Marston Road on trial - grabbed a last minute consolation for Chris Brindley's side.

Read watched from the sidelines with the manager as the team were took apart, but still believes that the match was a worthwhile exercise.

He said: "The game highlighted both our strengths and weaknesses, but at the end of the day it was a training exercise so we must not read too much into it.

"There are still players to come in and players to come out, so we are by no means the finished article yet. It's a total rebuild that we have got here this summer, so it will take time to gel together.

"You can't just pull on a pair of boots and play, it takes time."

Rangers fielded a number of trialists on Saturday, with William Berry playing alongside Nick Amos at centre-half and Dorryl Proffitt back in the fold on the wing.

On the bench, Shaw, Maine Road's James Marsden and former Port Vale youngster Sam Lycett were also involved.

Pleasing for the Marston Road men was Jake Moult back in midfield alongside a loan star from last season in Christian Millar - although neither player has yet to sign terms for next season.

But they suffered the blow of losing new goalkeeper Lee Evans, who had to be replaced by Danny Allen in the second minute, after suffering a facial injury in a clash with Walker.

Read told of the horror the signing from Chasetown suffered.

The Rangers No 2 said: "Lee has had 11 stitches in his nose, by all accounts it was a very nasty facial injury. He practically sliced the end of his nose off. It's a loss and a massive blow for us at this early stage of the summer.

"He is looking at a couple of weeks out, for sure."