JORDAN JONES stepped up his return from injury with a run-out in a victory over Brentford B at the Hummel Training Centre on Tuesday afternoon.

The Northern Irishman hasn't featured for Steven Gerrard's side since being injured in the closing stages of the defeat to Celtic in September.

Jones was sent off for a late challenge on Hoops defender Moritz Bauer and crocked himself in the process as he sustained knee damage.

Boss Steven Gerrard was critical of the winger for the manner of the challenge and Bauer later revealed that Jones had apologised for the moment of madness just seconds before the end of a 2-0 Old Firm defeat for the Light Blues.

Jones was left out of Rangers' Europa League squad and will be unable to take part in the Group G decider with Young Boys on Thursday evening as Gerrard's side set their sights on a place in the knockout rounds this term.

The former Kilmarnock star is moving closer towards a place in Gerrard's squad once again, though, and he played for 62 minutes of the friendly against Brentford before being replaced by James Maxwell.

Under-20s boss Graeme Murty was able to call on a handful of experienced players as his side ran out comfortable 4-0 winners over the Bees.

And Murty reckons the run-out will prove to be a useful learning curve for his kids as the likes of Nathan Patterson, Jamie Barjonas and Dapo Mebude played their part.

Murty said: “It is great for our younger players, you have got people like Andy King, Jamie Murphy, Jordan Jones, Greg Stewart dropping in.

“Our guys need to be able to survive in their environment and by that I mean they need to be able to talk to first-team players in the right way.

“They need to demand of the first-team players but also they need to understand when first team players put demand on them they need to be able to stand up to that they need to be able deal with a first team player giving them a bit of a hard time.

“It is a brilliant exercise for them to be able to do that because our younger players talented though they are with the qualities that they have need to have a personality about them.

“They need to have a confidence and a belief that they deserve to be on the same pitch and I thought as a blending exercise and as an eye-opener for our younger players it was fantastic."

Rangers took the lead in the 23rd minute as Patterson's cross was turned into his own net by Luka Racic and Murty's side would go on to record a straightforward victory at Auchenhowie.

Stewart won a penalty and then converted from the spot just after the half hour mark and the third arrived eight minutes in the second half.

Jones got the assist as his corner was headed home by defender Rhys Breen and it was Mebude that completed the scoring as he collected a Greg Docherty pass and beat the keeper with just four minutes remaining.

“It was blowing a gale and torrential rain and the guys had to deal with that, it is a test of mentality and they approached it really well," Murty told RangersTV.

“I thought Brentford were very good in patches and they kept the ball very well.

“They know what they are doing they are very slick they are quick with the ball and we managed to deal with what they did, what the conditions did and we managed to run out winners.

“We are happy with not only the application from the guys but also the attitude not to let there be any excuses for the performance.

"I thought Kieran did very very well and thought the two centre-half’s in particular defended the middle of the goal very well.

“It is pleasing to keep a clean sheet although I thought we could’ve defended in the prior stages better than we did but overall very very pleasing in terms of the exercise and the work rate from the fellas.”