Scorers: Shinnie (4), Lennon (21, 55, 65pen), Furman (70) RANGERS lifted their first Scottish Youth Cup in five years with an emphatic destruction of rivals Celtic at Hampden last night.
In the most one-sided final in the competition's history, the Ibrox side comprehensively out-classed the cup holders and laid down an impressive marker for the club's Murray Park academy.
Rangers last won the trophy in 2002, with a side featuring Chris Burke and Charlie Adam, and the fans who turned out last night were eager to catch a glimpse of potential first-team graduates. They were not disappointed. Striker Andrew Shinnie has already made a top-team appearance this season, and it was he who started the rout, but the evening belonged to Steven Lennon.
The teenager scored three and his second, in particular, was a collector's item - a dipping effort from 30 yards which arced over Paul Skinner, the Celtic goalkeeper. He completed his hat-trick with a confidently taken second-half penalty just after the hour mark.
"It was a brilliant night and I think we deserved it," said Lennon, who is hopeful of a first team run-out before the end of the season. "It's probably the best night of my career."
Dean Furman, the Paul Le Guen signing who scored his side's final goal, also played a key role in the midfield, where Celtic were out-muscled, while the prodigious 15-year-old John Fleck served another reminder of his talents with an effervescent display.
"We want to go on and do the double now," insisted Furman, referring to the under-19 league title, in which Celtic and Rangers are neck and neck with one round of games left. "I was surprised at how it went tonight. We've played Celtic twice before this season, won one and lost one, and we're level in the league. But we got the early goal, scored a great second and kicked on."
A late influx of fans saw the kick-off delayed by 15 minutes as a crowd of just under 11,500, approximately 3000 more than Tuesday's Scottish Cup semi-final replay on Tuesday, made their way into the national stadium. It made for a boisterous atmosphere and one which Rangers adapted to better than Celtic.
Rangers opened the scoring inside five minutes and it was a goal impressive in both its fashioning and execution. Fleck shuttled the ball to Shinnie on the edge of the box, who turned inside on to his left foot and zipped a powerful drive into the corner. Rangers doubled their lead soon after. Steven Kinniburgh picked out Lennon 30 yards from goal and the striker spun beautifully to lash a half volley into the net.
It took the Parkhead side until the 35th minute to fashion their first effort on goal via a Paul Caddis, while Cillian Sheridan, the 18-year-old who made his first-team debut against Inverness Caledonian Thistle earlier in the season, registered their first shot on target moments later.
Any hopes of a resurgence were nipped in the bud in the 56th minute. Paul Emslie released Lennon down the left wing and the striker broke into the box and forced the ball home. Just after the hour, Jason Marr chopped down Jordan McMillan and Lennon stepped up to drill home from 12 yards. With 20 minutes left, Furman tapped home for the fifth.
Rangers Gallacher; McLachlan, Perry, Smith, Kinniburgh; Shinnie, Furman, Emslie (Djeziri 82), McMillan (Ness 65); Fleck, Lennon (Little 78). Subs: Sagar, Harvey Booked McLachlan 40, Emslie 44, Kinniburgh 54, Perry 84.
Celtic Skinner; Caddis, Marr, Anderson (Harvey 72), Lafferty (Monti 69); Cawley, Millar (Connell 64), Hepburn, Carey; Sheridan, Cahillane. Subs: Barron, Traub, Kiely Referee S Finnie
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article