A LOAN move to Ladbrokes Championship part-timers Dumbarton around this time last year proved to be the catalyst which helped Ross McCrorie to finally make his breakthrough at Rangers.

The defender cum midfielder hasn't looked back since his spell in Stevie Aitken’s side in the second half of the 2016/17 campaign and is now a regular starter, if not firmly established, in Graeme Murty’s team.

He may not go on to become one of the greatest players in Scottish football history, as Pedro Caixinha, the manager who gave him his chance, rashly predicted, but the future certainly looks very bright indeed for the teenager.

Yet, this time 12 months ago McCrorie was pessimistic about his prospects. Having already been farmed out to Ayr United the season before, he suspected the move to Dumbarton could spell the end of his time at Rangers.

“There was a fear when I went there that I might not come back,” he said as he looked back on his remarkable 2017 at Auchenhowie. “I'm not going to lie, I worried that I might not get a chance here after that. I had to believe, but there's always a wee bit of doubt at the back of your mind. Am I ever going to get a chance to play in the Rangers first team?

“Mark Warburton didn't think I was ready and he wanted me to go out again. I don't think Mark fancied me. He felt I wasn't ready and he was probably right. I respected his opinion. But I kept working, trying to improve my game every day. It worked out well in the end.

“I was a bit disappointed about having to go back out on loan. I was so desperate to get a chance at Rangers. But I felt a bit left out. I would make the odd first team squad or get on the bench without really getting a break. But looking back, I probably wasn't ready. The Dumbarton loan made me come on leaps and bounds.

“Going somewhere like Dumbarton is an eye-opener at first. But it's a great club and they made me feel so welcome. It made me appreciate what we have at Rangers. We don't know how lucky we are when it comes to facilities.

“In a playing sense, I learned about game management at Dumbarton. We were at the lower end of the Championship playing against teams who were better than us. Even things like seeing games out, wasting time, you learn about how to manage that.”

Coming into contact with former Rangers players who had featured in the first team at Ibrox before being off-loaded at Dumbarton, the likes of Callum Gallagher, Tom Lang and Tom Walsh, strengthened his resolve to establish himself at his parent club.

“I was thinking: ‘They've been at Rangers and haven't quite made the grade’,” he said. “I didn't want to be like that and it's what made me push even harder. I wanted to be different from them and make the most of my chance.”

Coming back under the watchful eye of Ian Durrant, the Rangers great who had first spotted his huge potential when he was working as a youth coach at Auchenhowie, has also helped his embryonic development considerably.

“When I was with the under-17s, he was the one that moved me up to the under-20s,” said McCrorie. “In my first years with the under-20s, he made me captain. So he had quite a bit of confidence in me. He helped my game, showing me different areas where I could improve.

“When I went out on loan to Ayr, he told me I would make it. He assured me that if I kept working hard then I’d make. That gave me great belief. Ian Durrant’s a Rangers legend, so I took his word for it.

“It was a huge confidence boost. I knew he had seen something in me when he took me aside for chats. If a coach isn’t talking to you, you know something’s wrong, but Ian would speak to me every other day and that helped lot. In the year ahead I’m just aiming to try and stay in the first XI at Rangers.”

Caixinha’s ill-fated seven-month tenure at Rangers will not be fondly remembered by anyone associated with the Ibrox club. Most are trying hard to forget it. But McCrorie will forever be indebted to the Portuguese coach for putting his faith in him.

“I came back a far better player,” he said. “It had helped being at Dumbarton, getting games. I think he saw something in training. For the first time, I did pre-season with the first team and played in the games. I’m thankful to him for giving me the chance.”

One of the 19-year-old’s first experiences was painful. He was on the bench in July when Rangers were beaten 2-0 by Luxembourgian minnows Progres Niederkorn away and crashed out of the Europa League in the first qualifying round.

“It was a bit of an eye-opener,” he said. “The fans were angry afterwards, but I don’t blame them because we should be beating teams like that. It was a great experience, but such a disappointing result. Everyone was expecting us to go through to the next round and it was no good when we failed.”

McCrorie and his twin brother Robbie, a goalkeeper who is on loan at League Two club Berwick Rangers, both signed four-and-a-half year contract extensions with Rangers last week.

The Scotland Under-21 internationalist believes his talented sibling will benefit from his spell at Berwick in the same way he blossomed at Dumbarton and will force his way into the first team at Ibrox in the not too distant future as well.

“People look at players going out on loan and think they’re maybe trying to get rid of them,” he said. “That’s not the case here. They want you to go out on loan, gain experience and become a better player. Getting that time on the pitch and learning about game management helps you a lot.

“Robby’s doing great at Berwick and I’m sure if he keeps plugging away then he’s going to get his chance. I think he’s a bit quieter, maybe a bit deeper. He doesn’t show his emotions so much. It’s quite hard to know how he’s feeling, but I think he’ll be alright.

“Robby has a far stronger mindset than me. Every day he’s focused. He’s in the gym a lot and always doing something to try and improve himself. He’s the same as me, he’s looking for small details. His focus is to get in the Rangers’ first team and he’ll do anything that will help him.”

He knows goalkeepers develop at a different time to outfield players. We always think of Allan McGregor going out on loan before he made it at Rangers. Robby looks at that example and it’s one reason why he’s happy to go out on loan, get experience and then hopefully be back and chapping at the door for a place.”

If he gets in he will undoubtedly find himself playing alongside his brother.