Graeme Murty explains how friendly defeat will benefit two tormented Rangers teenagers

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The young Ibrox side put out at Rangers’ Hummel Training Centre contained 15- and 16-year-old players.

Graeme Murty believes defeat for Rangers’ development squad on Tuesday will benefit at least two Gers youngsters in the long run.

Murty’s side, which contained a good blend of youth and experience, were beaten 2-1 by Carlisle United’s reserves in a friendly at Rangers’ Hummel Training Centre.

The presence of first-team players Andy Firth, Matt Polster, Greg Docherty and Eros Grezda was partially balanced out by the likes of Leon King and Lewis MacKinnon – a first-half substitute – who are more commonly found playing in younger age groups.

The teens spent most of the game thrust together at centre-back, where they were tasked with keeping quiet a pair of six-foot-plus Premier League strikers – Elias Sorensen and Ryan Loft.

And speaking via the official Rangers Youtube channel after a goal apiece from Sorensen and Loft condemned the young Gers to defeat despite a Jamie Barjonas wonder strike, Murty described the encounter as a ‘good test’.

“More importantly than anything else,” explained the Yorkshireman. “Our two young centre-halves – 15 and 16 years old by the way – have had to play against mature athletes and they’ve been in a situation where for once they haven’t been able to be the fastest and the strongest and the most physical, and they’ve had to get their set-up right and had to get into position before the problems become a crisis.

“They didn’t manage to do that on two occasions and better feedback than me actually telling them stuff is for it to actually happen to them on the pitch. So they see now, ‘ah, I see the set up we need to have, I need to get this position right, otherwise we’re going to get punished at a higher level’. They saw that today and it’s an invaluable experience for them.

“I must say thank you to the first-team players for talking them through the experience, not being too down on them when they do make mistakes. Overall it was a really, really god exercise and we showed some good bits.

“It’s great. We can’t replicate that (experience). So even when the guys come into training against the 18s and 19s, you’re not going to get somebody as big as Lofty their centre-forward [pictured] – we haven’t got one. So they have to see that different experience, that different learning challenge. And I thought for the majority of the game they handled it really well.

“But it’s invaluable for Leon King to go into an experience where they throw it straight into the box, he gets pushed a little bit by the centre-forward, he gets back on his heels so his weight’s not in the right position, his body’s not in the right position, he gets rolled, it costs a goal.

“He feels instantly down but the learning from that, the analysis from that, the debrief from that will make him a far, far better player in the next couple of years. He will grow and develop from that better than 20, 30, 40 training exercises.

“To go and do it in a match like that, against that opposition, we need that more often and they need that more often, I’m just thankful we had the opportunity today.”