CAMERON Campbell says winning the Scottish FA Youth Cup is a ‘huge moment’ for his Rangers U18s side as the young Gers were named champions at Hampden this evening.
The U18s coach expressed his complete pride as he watched his squad lift the Youth Cup trophy tonight after defeating Hearts U18s 2-1 at the national stadium in Glasgow.
Speaking exclusively to RangersTV after the squad were named champions, he said: “Proud is probably a good word to describe it. We see how much work the boys do on a consistent basis as they come through the Academy, seeing them get a moment like this to reach the Scottish Youth Cup Final and lifting the trophy is a huge moment for them and one that we are really proud to go see them do.
“As I said in the build-up to this, the boys were really looking forward to playing on the pitch, which is incredible, but also in the stadium with the fans behind them. It’s all a new experience and one that hopefully they will experience more in the Rangers first team soon enough.”
Campbell reflected on the resilience shown by his side tonight against Steven Naismith’s squad after they managed to close the deficit by a goal in the second half.
He added: “It was a very challenging game; Hearts are a really good side and were organised. They had loads of energy in the second half especially after being 2-0 down, they gave us a great challenge and it was really pleasing for the guys to show the resilience to go and come through that. The performance was really important, especially at development football, but at the end of the day we wanted to lift that trophy, so it’s been great.
“We need to find ways to challenge the guys and improve them to take them out their comfort zone, but we want them to have these experiences. If the first time that they reach a Cup final is when they get to the first team, that’s not ideal because they’ve never had those nerves before going into the game, so hopefully that sets them well in a future group as they’ve now experienced it.”