GLENN Middleton ventured out for his first Rangers start with one instruction from his manager ringing in his ears. “He just told me to give the right back pure hell,” said the 18-year-old.
While it can safely be said that he carried out Steven Gerrard’s missive to the letter, the teenager attacking Liam Smith and the space behind him all night, he might just have done more than that. The mixture of pace and strength that he showed on the shoulder of the last defender as he fended off Jamie Adams to steer in his second goal of the evening hinted that he could have a future in the centre forward position, particularly when the club’s Betfred Cup semi-final ticks round in late October and the club are without the suspended Alfredo Morelos and cup tied Kyle Lafferty. While Middleton could trust his right foot more and spurned a late chance to make it a hat-trick, the other main area he needs to brush up on are the knee slides for his goal celebrations.
“I played as a striker when I was younger - it was my position and like any forward I love scoring goals,” said Middleton. “But I need to work on my goal celebration, the second one didn’t exactly go to plan.”
Gerrard has enough on his plate picking a team for Livingston on Sunday without trying to second guess matches which are weeks away on the calendar - “What happens if he has four nightmares between now and then – do I still pick him?” he half-joked on Wednesday night– but Middleton certainly isn’t short of belief in his own ability.
“It would mean everything to me to be involved,” he said. “I am as desperate as anyone to get this club back and win a trophy. But we will need to see what happens. We have a really good squad now and I think everyone can see that. It’s just about us doing our own bit in training and giving the manager a decision to make, showing the manager can trust me in any situation. I keep doing things bit by bit and it seems to be going in the right direction.”
Middleton’s first start was one of six for the club from the 5-1 win against St Johnstone; but the team on the field was comfortably good enough to avoid a potential banana skin. “It shows we are definitely going in the right way,” said Middleton. “There was a few changes tonight, me included and I think we all showed we didn’t let the levels drop too much. I’m not going to say I am the most technical player in the world because I’m not, but I’m always going to go at someone.”
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