McCallum Believes Team Must Continue To Push Their Standards

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DAVID McCallum says the Rangers B Team must continue to push their standards as they prepare to continue their league campaign against Caledonian Braves on Saturday afternoon.

The B team boss believes that the Young Gers need to keep pushing their standards as they begin the second half of the season.

Speaking exclusively to RangersTV ahead of their first competitive fixture of 2022 following last week’s game postponement, he said: “We were a little bit frustrated as the lads were looking forward to getting into some game time again. We were fortunate enough to get a friendly game midweek against Cowdenbeath, so that helped the players get back into a rhythm of playing football on the pitch in competitive games.

“It was a good one, but unfortunately, we picked up a few niggles which isn’t ideal but it’s something that we manage and hopefully we can get one of them back for the game at the weekend. It’s just about keep pushing standards in players and in ourselves. There is so much we can gain in between games whether it be training with us or with the first team on the other side of the building.”

Following Leon King’s contract extension with the club and promotion from the B team to the first team, McCallum believes this will continue to motivate the youngsters when similar opportunities are afforded.

He added: “There will be a lot of Academy staff that will be delighted [with Leon’s progression], you’re talking about the staff that have worked with him since he was a much younger age and seeing the progression and him training round with the first team pretty much permanently now.

“For the rest of the lads, it can only motivate and inspire you with opportunities that may open up. Some of the other B team lads have spent time around with the first team, their getting that opportunity to be visible, seen and more opportunities to try and build that picture of what they could be.

“Hopefully, they’ll show up well and the first-team staff will keep talking about them. We keep saying that to them, you never know when the door opens, whether it be training or matchday opportunities. It’s up to the players to make sure that they show up well to any given opportunity.”

McCallum looked ahead to this weekend’s match against Caledonian Braves and expressed the collective excitement to kick start the second half of the season.

He said: “We’re excited to get back on the game again, we’ve got a good group of fixtures coming up. We have the Lowland League fixture just now; the UEFA Youth League early next month. It’s about focus, pushing our standards. Whatever challenges that we come up against will be different, of course, but we will prepare for what each game might bring.”

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