Rangers Youth Academy Director Jim Sinclair will take in the first team game at Hampden this weekend against Queen’s Park with a sense of pride that is shared between both clubs.
Sinclair was a winner often at Hampden as Black and White Spider in the early 1980’s and he is now looking for some of his Graduates for Murray Park to help Rangers win at the National Stadium he used to call home.
“Davie McParland took me to Queen’s Park,” said Sinclair before adding, “And I worked with Joe Gilroy before the legendary Eddie Hunter was in charge. He built a really strong team including Alan Irvine and John McGregor who went to play for Everton and Liverpool.”
“We won the Second Division in 1981 and Bobby Dickson who is now the assistant manager at Queen’s was a big part of that team as well. He was a great servant as a player and I am pleased that he is still involved at the club.”
The Hampden club demonstrated great values to Sinclair who added, “I had a great time there and was surrounded by people who had a strong ethic for hard work. It is still there within their youth teams who play with a great spirit and tremendous attitude against Rangers at the various age groups.”
The present day Rangers youngsters are also showing a great spirit and tremendous attitude in a first team environment with Sinclair saying, “The most pleasing factor for me this season has how well the youngsters have handled everything that has went on. There was a bit of negativity around performances at the start of the season but they are now sitting 12 points clear.”
“It may well have been expected but the youngsters, aided by their more senior colleagues, have delivered and I am not surprised by how well they have done.”
Sinclair compared his latest batch of youngsters like Barrie McKay, Ross Perry, Lewis Macleod and Fraser Aird to a recent crop of Murray Park graduates when he said, “The likes of Danny Wilson, John Fleck, Jamie Ness and Rhys McCabe all came through and Walter Smith said that they were a talented bunch but that they had an even more important attribute which was mental toughness.”
“You can have bags of ability but you will not be a great footballer without a degree of mental toughness and Murray Park has helped our players gain that. It is difficult when you are young and expected to win every game but these kids are doing that at Ibrox just now.”
As for this Saturday’s game Sinclair said, “I saw Queen’s Park play at Ibrox and they did very well and this will be a difficult game. It will be fantastic experience for the Rangers players to play at a pretty packed Hampden and they will benefit from it later in their careers but I am sure the Queen’s Park players will be looking forward to it as well.”
“I would have been when I was a player there.”
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