GRAEME MURTY is confident midfielder Jamie Barjonas has the quality and the character to force his way into the Rangers first team.
The 20-year-old produced a Man of the Match winning performance against Wrexham on Saturday as the Light Blues booked their place in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup.
Barjonas opened the scoring for the Colts before Nathan Young-Coombes clinched a deserved victory with a second half strike.
And Murty has backed Barjonas, who recently signed an extension to his Ibrox deal, to make the most of his chance to impress boss Steven Gerrard this term.
He said: “We just have to make sure that we continue his development on and make sure that we put the platform in place for him to keep growing and improving as a player and then it is up to him to take that final step and really nail that final audition, if you like, in front of the first team manager so that he can take that next step.
“There are loads of different things [he needs to improve on] but the people that you really need to talk to are the first team group. The first team group have taken them into their changing room, he trains with them every day and they like what he does and like the character that he shows in dealing with the first team players.
“Let’s not forget, he has to go into a first team dressing room full of internationals and deal with the characters. He has to have a bit of personality about him and he has definitely got that, definitely got confidence.
“The first team will show him and deal with him in the manner which they deem appropriate to try and get him to that next level. It is up to him to take those lessons on board and continue his progression.”
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