Rangers boss Mark Warburton is passionate about the club's youngsters seeing an opportunity to progress to the first team if they do the right things and he was happy to have been able to play Ryan Hardie yesterday as proof.
Warburton brought Hardie off the bench against St Mirren in Rangers' 4-0 Scottish Challenge Cup semi-final victory on Saturday, handing the young forward 12 minutes on the pitch in front of the crowd at Ibrox.
The Englishman believes it is essential that the youngsters at the club know there is no glass ceiling on their development at Rangers and he was happy for Hardie to have had his chance.
He told Rangers TV: "Pleasing for him. He's worked hard.
"The younger players, the academy players, have to see that pathway. They have to know if they work hard it isn't a glass ceiling", Warburton continued.
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"It has to be that if they work hard and show the quality and the commitment, they get their chance.
"Our job, [my assistant] David [Weir], the staff and myself is to make sure we give them the opportunities at the right times."
Hardie will hope to be involved once again on Tuesday night when Rangers return to Scottish Championship duty by hosting Dumbarton at Ibrox.
Victory for the Gers would put them on 40 points in the league and mean they would have taken just 15 games to get there.
