RYAN HARDIE hopes he will make a Rangers career out of taking chances. The first one he must make the most of is at Raith Rovers.
Hardie’s journey from a Murray Park kid to an Ibrox star has taken a detour via Kirkcaldy. For one step back, he hopes to take several forward in Light Blue. The striker dreams of making it at Rangers, but it is at Stark’s Park where he will spend the coming months on the road to potential first team glory.
Hardie has been a regular feature in Mark Warburton’s squad this season but has found first team football hard to come by as he has been unable to force his way into the starting line-up or earn enough game time from the substitutes bench.
The 18-year-old made his Raith bow in the 2-0 win over Livingston on Saturday as he swapped a Championship title challenge for a bid to secure a play-off berth. Having turned out regularly for Rangers’ Under-20s this term, he now has a platform to prove why he is so highly thought of at Auchenhowie, and why the Ibrox crowd are so keen to see him given a shot in the Gers’ attacking line.
“It is a chance for me to get regular first team football so hopefully I can get in the Raith team and help them do well this season,” Hardie told Herald Sport. “I will get to play against men rather than in Under-20 football and I am looking forward to the challenge.
“The big thing for me was to play at the highest level that I could so that I can show that I can play at the same level that Rangers are at just now. I have got to go out and show that I can handle the pressure. That is what you should want as a footballer and that is what I enjoy. It makes me perform better, it makes me want to do better and strive for success.
“Obviously you want to win every game you play and being in the 20s has been good for me. But there is a different pressure and feel when you are in a first team match. You are playing for a win bonus and points so there is more importance on them.”
For many players that head out on loan, it can be a case of out of sight, out of mind as they find themselves on the fringes of a squad and down the pecking order. That is unlikely to be the case with Hardie, though, as he looks to prove why Warburton was right to hand him a new deal that will keep him at Ibrox until 2018.
The confirmation of Hardie’s loan switch came the day after Martyn Waghorn had hobbled off against Kilmarnock with the knee injury that will keep him out of action for two months. It could have been seen as a chance for Hardie to stake his claim and push for a starting spot but Warburton is happy to rely on Kenny Miller, Nicky Clark and Michael O’Halloran to fill the central attacking berth in the coming weeks. For Hardie, there were no second thoughts.
“It was mostly agreed and the papers were nearly signed on the day of the Kilmarnock game,” he said. “Everything was in place to go ahead before Martyn got injured. We still have Kenny (Miller), Clarky (Nicky Clark) and Michael (O’Halloran) who can play in that position. If I had stayed, I would have pushed to get in the team and fought for my place. But I am happy to go out on loan.
“Martyn has come in and done brilliantly for us. It is not just his goals, it is his all-round game and the way he works during games and in training. I need to look up to that and I know that if I want to do as well as him then I need to put into it as much as he does.”
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