RANGERS B will round off their pre-season tour of Northern Ireland this evening with a trip to Clandeboye Park to face Bangor, a city which holds a special place in the heart of goalkeeper Mason Munn.
The young shot stopper, who turned just 17-years-old earlier this year, was born and raised on the outskirts of the city, cutting his teeth at local club Abbey Villa before joining the youth ranks at Rangers via Glentoran.
Munn’s father, Jon, is a local legend around Abbey Villa, captaining the Amateur League side for 16 years before becoming a successful coach.
Speaking to RangersTV ahead of this evening’s clash, Munn said: “It’ll be a great experience for me going out onto the pitch in front of friends and family. It will definitely be a proud moment to play.
“Probably when I was about six or seven-years-old, I remember just growing up and playing for my local team Abbey Villa. I’ve always loved football right from the very beginning, and the main thing has been being a goalkeeper. My Dad has always been a goalkeeper, so it’s been easy for me to step into that role and learn a lot from him. Loads of my friends are from Bangor, so growing up from that direction means it’s class to be back and playing against their first-team.
“My Dad has been the biggest part of my journey so far. Growing up in the early stages at Abbey Villa, but even moving on from that, the learning experiences from him at key moments in my career. He has taught me a lot of things.
“The chairman at Bangor, Graham Baillie, used to be my Dad’s manager at Abbey Villa and they won the Border Cup together. There’s a bit of a link there, so I’m not sure who my Dad will be wanting to win tonight!”
Munn grew up in a period of relative success for the Northern Ireland national team, watching on as a ten-year-old when the Green and White Army strutted their stuff at the European Championships in France in 2016.
The youngster most recently represented his country at Under-17 level, and admits that he is keen to continue learning at club level among a talented goalkeeping set-up.
Munn added: “Aside from signing for Rangers, [representing my country] has been one of the proudest moments of my career so far. Playing against England and other big nations, I enjoyed every moment of it and it’s something that I want to keep doing.
“George Best was obviously well before my time, but a lot of people in Northern Ireland talk about him as the best player to come out of that era. Steven Davis is still at Rangers just now, and he has been a big idol in terms of his captaincy and leadership. That is something that I’ve taken from him.
“Being able to win a game for your team is the biggest thing, but also sometimes losing a game for your team. That’s the beauty of the position. It’s learning about how to deal with that, but as you get older, you get more experience and make fewer mistakes. If you’re going to make mistakes, you want to make mistakes when you’re young as that’s how you’ll learn.”
Kick-off at Clandeboye Park is 7:30pm this evening and you can buy your tickets here.
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