It was a good week for the first team with the qualification to the second qualifying round with a 2-0 aggregate victory over FC Shkupi of Macedonia.
Of course, within the squad for both games, there were several young players: striker Zak Rudden, and defender Kyle Bradley both made the bench for both games without seeing any game time. However, the experience of being with the travelling party will have done them no harm at all, especially with the team laying to rest the Progres debacle of last season and qualifying for the next round.
The two who played had mixed fortunes. Starting with young Ross. Over the two legs, I felt it wasn’t two of his better performances in a Rangers shirt, especially in that midfield area. I don’t know if it was down to lack of matches, but in both legs, he looked unsure of his position, he gave the ball away countless time and to be frank, looked lost in the midfield against Shkupi’s guys.
McCrorie, as we know, is at his best when he’s covering ground and thundering into tackles, which he has already proved he’s well capable of doing in the domestic game. But I felt he was found wanting in his reading of the game, but let’s not forget he will have to get used to playing against players whose first thought isn’t to lump it in the air over time that side of his game will develop as he plays more games at European level.
Maybe I was expecting too much from him at such an age in such a pressure game given last season’s exit. Hopefully the 180 minutes will have done him the world of good fitness-wise and he is raring to go next week in Croatia vs Osijek. That will be another step up in quality in that middle third for him to test himself against. I will be watching with particular interest to see how the young man fares. It’s going to be nice to see how he will have to adapt his game at this point in his development to face such challenges.
On the other hand, Glenn Middleton continued to impress after his brief cameo and two assists against Bury. He really impressed particularly in the first leg at Ibrox. Coming on for Josh Windass, he gave the team a new sense of attacking purpose: taking on the full-back and beating him many times, and of course whipping in a few good crosses which weren’t capitalised upon by the other forward players.
By the time he came on in Skopje, it was all about game management and seeing the tie out. But he was a good outlet down that left side winning the team a couple of corners and helping get the team over the line.
We look forward to seeing if any of the other boys from the youth team can make an impact in the next round vs Osijek and of course we will bring you our thoughts on how the likes of young Ross and Glenn performed if indeed they are selected.
Jamie Currie
RFC Youth Updates 