Rangers Academy News

Der Berliner · 19. Mai 2010

Zitat

YOUNG GUNS RUNNERS UP AT HONGKONG 7s

RANGERS have enjoyed a positive start to the summer by reaching the final of the prestigious Hong Kong Soccer Sevens tournament on Sunday.
The Light Blues won five out of five games without conceding a goal before taking on Aston Villa who lifted the trophy courtesy of a 3-2 win over their SPL opponents.
Tommy Wilson's squad showed their intent in the group stages by recording 2-0, 1-0 and 2-0 victories over Hong Kong FC Select, Tuen Muen and West Ham United respectively.
And goalkeeper Scott Gallacher kept another clean sheet as Rangers beat Old Firm rivals Celtic 2-0 in the quarter-finals.
With confidence high Premiership side Sunderland were next up and again the Murray Park youngsters romped to a stunning 3-0 scoreline although Gallacher denied the Black Cats on more than one occasion in an impressive display.
The final was always going to be a tough contest with Villa having a strong group of players which included first-team starlets Nathan Delfouneso, Ciaran Clark and Benjamin Siegrist.
The players in claret and blue showed their quality but after scoring three quickfire goals a double from Andrew Shinnie, who was named Player of the Tournament and top scorer with eight, brought Rangers back in to the contest.
Unfortunately it was not enough and despite Max Wright coming close with an effort in the last minute Villa lifted the trophy.
Wilson, however, was proud of his squad's efforts and felt the trip to the Far East was yet again a great experience for everyone involved.
He said: "To get to the final without losing a goal highlights just how well our lads did.
"We beat West Ham, Celtic and Sunderland on our way to the final so we are all very happy with what we achieved.
"We had a mixed group out with us this year with five under-18s travelling including Andrew Mitchell who has just joined Rangers after being with Manchester City last season.
"On top of that we had five older boys but everyone gelled really quickly and we hit the ground running when the games started.
"Obviously to beat Celtic was very pleasing after losing out to them in the final in 2009 and we then did very well to beat Sunderland 3-0 although the scoreline perhaps flattered us a bit as Scott had some fantastic saves in that game.
"But we went in to the final with a lot of confidence and could have equalised in the last minute through Max (Wright) after we had staged a late comeback; unfortunately it wasn't to be and Villa won.
"To be fair to them they were very good and were always going to be one of the favourites to win the tournament.
"But overall I thought we were excellent and Andrew Shinnie, who scored several goals for us, did exceptionally well and was named the Player of the Tournament.
"So once again coming out to Hong Kong has been a fantastic experience and it's a great event to be involved in."

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Group Fixtures
Rangers vs Hongkong FC Select 2:0
Rangers vs Tuen Muen 1:0
Rangers vs West Ham 2:0

Quarter Final
Rangers vs Celtic 2:0

Semi Final
Rangers vs Sunderland 3:0

Final
Rangers vs Aston Villa 2:3 (Shinnie 2x - )

SQUAD: Scott Gallacher, Andrew Mitchell, Ross Perry, Rhys McCabe, Stephen Stirling, Andrew Shinnie, Rory Loy, Dylan McGeouch, Max Wright, Kal Naismith

ClemeX · 19. Mai 2010

Alles in allem wieder mal ein gelungenes Turnier in HK. Super dass wir die Tims geschlagen haben, aber auch beachtlich dass wir bis zum Finale alle geschlagen haben und kein Gegentor kassiert haben. Zudem wurde Shinnie zum Player of the Tournement ernannt, das wird schon was heißen, schließlich haben ja Teams wie Aston Villa, Ajax Amsterdam, West Ham usw auch Klasse Talente. Man darf gespannt sein ob Shinnie nächstes Jahr vl den Durchbruch schafft, denn bei seiner Leihe bei Dundee FC hat er ja angeblich überzeugt.

Schade nur dass wir zum 2ten mal in Folge zwar bis ins Hauptfinale gekommen sind, es aber nicht gewonnen haben!

**Caledonia** · 22. September 2010

Reserves Beat Saints

Der Berliner · 20. Januar 2011

Zitat

Cork youngster making his name at Rangers

by Alan Smith Thu, Jan 20 2011
When Alan Smith first stepped in between the posts for Springfield Ramblers as a fresh-faced schoolboy at nine years of age, nobody would have imagined that shortly after his 17th birthday Rangers would hand him a professional contract.

An Irish player signing for the club on the blue side of Glasgow might be very much a rarity in the footballing world, but it’s not the only unusual story in Smith’s rapid rise to prominence.

Having originally made his name playing for Springfield and the CSL inter-league side, the Cobh-born stopper earned a deserved call-up to the Irish underage setup. Although there was nothing unusual about that, as a host of local players find themselves representing their country at various age groups every year, what soon followed was the first surprising turn in the burgeoning career of one of the most promising Irish goalkeepers around.

After other teams around the country took notice of his authority in the area and terrific shot-stopping ability, Smith was approached by Dublin side Crumlin United to become their goalkeeper, not too long before a new rule was implemented by the SFAI blocking such moves. Nowadays, it is impossible for a player to sign for a club so far from his home, meaning long distance commuting to play football at underage level is now banned.

Smith’s move, though, came before the ruling was introduced and he has reaped the rewards since he was spotted by the Dublin side. Firstly, the transfer meant he established an even bigger role in the international setup under the guidance of Sean McCaffrey, with arguably more emphasis placed on Irish scouts watching players plying their trade nearer the capital, before finally he was spotted by the Scottish club while starring for Crumlin.

“I started with Springfield when I was six or seven,” he says of his beginnings at the seaport town. “Originally, I was playing outfield but I finally moved into goal when I was playing at under-9 but then once I was about 11 everything started to happen for me.

“I played in the Kennedy Cup then for the Cork inter-league team and an Ireland call-up came for a tournament called the Hibernian Cup. That call-up came just after I played in the Kennedy Cup, so for my first full international I was still playing at Springfield.

“From the Irish games I played that year, the Crumlin manager spotted me and invited me to the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland to play and be involved for the week. That went well and it just kind of happened from there. I was then spotted by Rangers playing for Crumlin by a scout called Paul Hammond, and that would have been at around under-16 level.”

Moving to a big club cross-channel is always a daunting prospect, with droves of players failing to settle down due to homesickness every year, but Smith believes he has fitted in well despite the big change in scenery from the playing fields of Cobh and Crumlin to Rangers’ state of the art Murray Park base.

“I was at some other clubs on trial, but there weren’t any other serious offers at the time. Just things like offering me another trial. To be honest, I settled in at Rangers fairly quickly,” he says with an air of coolness.

“I had been away from home a lot for the past few years so it wasn’t a major change. I had been on trial at other clubs since I was 13 and my first trial was at Nottingham Forest, so I haven’t found it hard settling in at all.”

That initial bedding in period was helped, of course, by making a solid debut for the under-19s in a pre-season game against Wolves just a short few weeks after signing. The result was a positive one too as Rangers ran out 3-1 winners. Since then, however, he has very much been an understudy to Belfast-born Wayne Drummond who was also signed last summer from Millwall – but with two years of a gap between them both, it’s not like there’s any rush and Smith is quite happy with how things have gone so far.

“Yeah, it was good to get that 90 minutes in pre-season and I think I have settled in well,” he adds. “I’m happy with my progress so far. I signed last summer, around July, and I have a two year contract here and I’m happy with how I’m progressing. All the players are brilliant as well, it was great to settle in so early after that game in pre-season.”

Despite the aforementioned attention from other clubs such as Notts Forest, after impressing in a couple of trial games in Glasgow, the youngster was offered a full-time deal and he accepted, becoming the first Republic international at any level since American-born Joe Lapira to sign a deal at Ibrox.

Even New York’s Lapira, who was handed one cap by Steve Staunton in 2007 and failed to make any impact in Glasgow because of injury, can’t be counted as Irish born so it places Smith in a unique list of players from the Republic to play in blue. Alex Stephenson, Alex Craig, James Lowry McAuley and Reuben Evans are the only other Irish-born players on record to have played for the club, making him only the fifth player south of the border ever to play for Rangers.

Being part of such an exclusive group makes the move abroad even more special but Smith is, perhaps understandably, keen to play down the rareness of it all. He has a certain air of confidence in his ability though; you can hear it in his voice. He is entirely focused on just getting as far as he possibly can in the cut throat world of professional football and being in such a unique position at Rangers doesn’t seem to have any affect.

“My ambition is to just go as far as I can and make the most of this opportunity that I’ve been given,” he concludes. And on the evidence so far, that could be very far indeed.

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EXTRA TIME

Der Berliner · 24. Januar 2011

Einiges zu Kane Hemmings und zwei Reservespielen:

Hem Hits The Mark

By Andrew Dickson

BILLY KIRKWOOD says Kane Hemmings isn't far from hitting peak condition again after he capped his competitive comeback on Saturday with a goal against Kilmarnock.

The Englishman took just three minutes to find the net in the 3-1 SPL under-19 league win over the Ayrshiremen at Murray Park.

Further goals from Robbie Crawford and Andrew Mitchell sealed the victory late in the game to move Gers four points clear of Hearts at the top of the table after 11 games.

But the real talking point was Hemmings' successful return to action following a hugely beneficial stay in Turkey with the youths recently.

The 19-year-old scored 10 goals in two games whilst the team was at a training camp in Alanya as he stepped up his comeback from a long-term knee injury.

Having found the net once again, coach Kirkwood is confident there is even more to come from the former Tamworth forward in the weeks ahead.

He said: "We're all delighted Kane is back scoring for us again and I'm sure he is delighted as well. It has been a long haul for him.

"He had a knee injury to start with and had a wee tidy up operation, during which we found out there was something more serious to deal with.

"That got fixed and it has been a long road to recovery for him but it's great he got through our recent trip to Turkey and that he's back in the team again.

"The games we played while we were abroad were really useful for him as he got plenty of efforts on goal and scored a lot while he was over there.

"Now he is putting that into good practice when it matters. We'll continue to monitor him as we get him up to full fitness.

"He has started really well and I'm sure in two or three games time that he'll be back to his best. Once he's at that stage he'll make a real contribution."

Hemmings got Gers got off to the perfect start against Killie when Max Wright and Crawford combined to win possession and tee up the striker.

But just after the hour mark, Rory McKenzie levelled for the visitors and it was game on again.

The hosts were the better side on the day though and they did enough to win the match in the latter stages as they responded well.

With 16 minutes remaining, Christiano Kisuka set up Crawford and he put Kirkwood's team back in front.

Substitute Mitchell then sealed a good win with six minutes to go after he came on for Wright, supplying a cool finish after Rhys McCabe's pinpoint through ball.

Kirkwood added: "We were delighted to get the three points after the break and our training camp.

"Some of the under-19s stayed in Glasgow to augment the reserves and help in training so we had to gel everyone together again when we returned home and it worked well.

"It was pleasing to see the team get better as the game progressed on Saturday. Credit to Kilmarnock, they gave us a very difficult game.

"We were 1-0 up and perhaps should have gone further ahead before they equalised but we finished the match strongly and got a good victory."

Rangers, meanwhile, sent a mixture of youths and reserves to Inverness yesterday for a friendly with Clachnacuddin and emerged 4-2 winners.

The likes of Kyle Hutton, Gregg Wylde, Jordan McMillan and Salim Kerkar all played in front of a crowd of 700 at Grant Street Park.

First-half goals from Anthony Marenghi and Adam Hunter had the visitors leading 2-1 at the break and a second half brace from Ewan McNeil won the game.

RANGERS (v Kilmarnock): Inglis, McAusland, Hegarty, Wiktorski, Hetherington (McNeil), Wright (Mitchell), McCabe, Crawford, Kisuka (McLeod), Naismith, Hemmings.

RANGERS (v Clach): Adam, Lindsay (Fotheringham), McIntyre, McMillan, Kerkar, Hutton, Mitchell (McLeod), Hunter, McNeil (Espling), Marenghi, Wylde.

**Caledonia** · 25. Januar 2011

Wenn Billy das sagt, wird schon etwas dran sein. Im Sturm fehlt einfach einer aus der Jugend. In anderen Bereichen sieht es da ja deutlich besser aus.

Der Berliner · 23. Februar 2011

Zitat

Rangers striker Archie Campbell has extended his loan stay at Cowdenbeath until the end of the season. (The Express)

**Caledonia** · 23. Februar 2011

Naja, was soll er sonst? Es gibt keine Reserve-Runde mehr und wer es nicht in die 1. Mannschaft schafft, hängt nicht selten in der Luft. Alles nicht einfach.

Der Berliner · 23. Februar 2011

Wir haben wieder Spieler im Winter abgegeben, Loy sogar permanent. Da hätte ich doch gedacht, daß er und vielleicht Hemmings albald mal gegen z.B. St. Johnstone um Einsatz kommen, auch um mal zu sehen, wie sich richtige Stürmer schlagen. Zudem ist Naismith nun wieder verletzt und Jela in Europa auch gesperrt. Hoffe doch, der Mann bleibt in McCoists Planung.

**Caledonia** · 30. August 2012

Reserve Fixtures Released

Der Berliner · 30. August 2012

Wir haben ca. 41 Spieler und anders als in der SPL, wo sie die Reserve-Liga abgesetzt haben, ist es gut, daß wir alle Leute mit sowas halbwegs fit halten.