STAND-in Ayr United skipper Steven Bell dubbed Lawrence Shankland the "best striker I have ever played with" after his double at Alloa helped them reach a major milestone.

The second goal was the 6000th in all for the Honest Men and took them to to the top of the table.

Bell said: "He is the best striker I have ever played with - he has pace, power and strength and his first goal today, there are not many strikers who could finish that. He has pace, power and strength. Lawrence for me could easily step into the Premier League.

"I see him every day in training and he trains out of his skin. Alloa is a difficult place to come. Not many teams will come here and take points off Alloa. We want to keep winning and see where it takes us, we know where want to go at the end of the season."Th

The defender/midfielder said the pressure will be off his side as they head to Ibrox Stadium tomorrow (Wednesday) to face Rangers in the Betfred Cup quarter-finals.

He added: "We will go out with our game plan and the gaffer will do a bit of shaping. We will have 900 fans and will go and enjoy it first and foremost and see where it goes. We went to Dundee as underdogs and won. But Rangers under Steven Gerard are a totally different outfit than they were last year or in the last few years."

Manager Ian McCall is impressed with his team's progress and said: "It's great to be top of the league after six games as Alloa are a good side and it was a great result."

On Rangers he said: "No one is expecting us to win. We will have a right good go at it and won't change how we play and just see what happens. We will play with two strikers but Rangers are a little bit different now under Steven Gerrard.

"The players are very much looking forward to it and a few of them have played there. Hopefully it won't take too much out of us and we look forward to playing Morton at Cappielow as league leaders on Saturday."

Shankland, meanwhile is underplaying their expectations at Ibrox and said: "I don't think anybody in their right mind is expecting us to go to Ibrox and win. They are a strong side. It's a free hit really though, we can just go and give it a go and see how we get on."