Rangers news latest as Hagi finds his feet with Alaves rave reviews and fellow loanee Lowry admits first goal amnesia

Things might have been different for Ianis Hagi if he’d stayed at Rangers given Michael Beale’s mounting injury problems - but the Romanian took a step in the right direction while on loan to Spanish side Alaves.

Despite coach Luis Garcia Plaza recently saying he looked “lost”, the Romanian was handed his first start for the La Liga outfit in Thursday night’s clash against Celta Vigo where he came up against former Old Firm rival Carl Starfelt.

Hagi lasted 69 minutes but his substitution came just a minute after he’d been fouled by Lucca De La Torre who was sent off for the tackle, his second bookable offence. That could have contributed to his withdrawal and up until then his performance, coming after three previous appearances off the bench, was much more promising. Hagi went close to scoring from a free kick and Spanish newspapers Marca and Mundo Deportivo gave him a positive player rating, with Javi Lopez and Samu Omorodion - who netted the equaliser against Rafa Benitez’s men - the only team-mates who ranked as high.

And Noticias de Alava wrote: “From less to more, as Luis Garcia Plaza said in the post match press conference. He wasn’t involved as much in the first half but suddenly appeared and was close to scoring direct from a free kick.”

Hagi was frustrated at a lack of game time at Ibrox and chose to move to Spain on loan. However, Rangers boss Beale is currently without a raft of attacking options and the Romanian could have found himself in the picture if he was still in Govan.

Meanwhile, fellow Gers loanee Alex Lowry admits he can't remember his first Rangers goal, but his maiden strike in maroon is crustal clear in his mind. He netted a dramatic late winner for Hearts to see them through to Hampden,