ZANDER HUTTON says Rangers Under-18s are targeting a Hampden return as they prepare for tomorrow afternoon’s Scottish Youth Cup semi-final.
The young Gers will square off against Dundee United at the Rangers Training Centre as they aim to reach the showpiece final at the national stadium for the fourth successive occasion.
Speaking to the official Rangers website before the clash, the 17-year-old full-back commented: “The experience of Hampden is very good. It’s a dream to play there when you do get the opportunity.
“It didn’t go the way we wanted it to go last year, but we want to make it right this year and show what we can do.
“Stevie Smith’s message is that he believes in all of us as a team. We’re a very good side and we work together very well.
“The message is the same for every game: go out and enjoy yourself first and foremost, show what you can do as a team, and win the game to the best of our ability.
“You want to win as much silverware as possible at this age. It gives you a taste of what first-team football is like, especially at a club as big as Rangers.”
It was only 12 months ago that the Light Blues reached the final of the competition without the concession of a single goal, and a clean sheet tomorrow afternoon would see the side repeat the feat.
Hutton believes the side’s success in the competition this term has been constructed on a similarly solid defensive platform.
He added: “We’re all really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a good challenge. We done really well last year reaching the final and not conceding a goal until the final.
“And we’ve been doing well this season as well; we’ve had good results so far in this competition.
“We played Dundee United recently and they gave us a few challenges that we didn’t expect. We have an idea about what they want to do, and we’ve been working in training about where to exploit the gaps.
“We can take a lot of confidence from the Hearts game [in the quarter-finals]. I feel that the performance level was very high, and the full squad was really top level coming into the game.
“We managed to get a good result considering Hearts are a very good side.”