BARRIE McKAY and Lewis Mac-leod could not escape from Rangers' shock defeat to Stirling Albion – the pair were back at Forthbank the very next day.

Macleod started the game and McKay came on as a second-half substitute as the Ibrox side went down 1-0 to Third Division bottom side Albion, who had lost five league games in a row before their meeting with Ally McCoist's men.

The duo would surely have liked nothing better than to forget all about the experience but had to return to the same stadium the following day when they joined up with the Scotland Under-19 squad ahead of their Euro qualifying tie against Armenia in Hamilton this evening.

Coach Ricky Sbragia said the boys had taken a bit of good-hearted stick from their international colleagues over the shock defeat but hoped playing week in, week out for the Rangers first team would stand both McKay and Macleod in good stead in the long run.

The former Sunderland manager said: "We actually trained at Stirling Albion on Sunday so that must have been an interesting experience for the two boys so soon after the Rangers match. We said to them that we hoped they wouldn't get too many flashbacks about what happened there on Saturday.

"Some of the lads gave them a bit of stick about it but to be fair to them they took it well. I think it's been a great experience for them overall playing first-team football.

"Lewis and Barrie are both excellent players and that's credit to the youth side at Rangers, Jimmy Sinclair and his coaches. It was a big decision for the manager to bring them into the first team.

"They'll be up and down – they're both still young players and some days they'll do better than others."

Macleod admitted Saturday's result left him down in the dumps. He said: "It's the biggest low I have felt but I just need to forget about it and focus on Scotland.

"If we had won at Stirling then I would have done the same thing. It's about focusing on the three games I have coming up this week. The result at Stirling isn't something I will be talking about much, but it's an experience which will help me further down the road in my career."

Supporters under the age of 16 can gain free entry to all of this week's Uefa Under-19 Championship qualifiers, with entry for adults at £5.