Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst vows to give youth a chance to impress during Scottish Cup tie against Stirling Albion

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has hinted he will give youth a chance to impress during their Scottish Cup fourth round tie against Stirling Albion tonight.

The Light Blues entertain part-time Binos at Ibrox as they begin their quest to put years of disappointment in the competition firmly behind them.

Three successive quarter final defeats to Aberdeen, Hearts and St Johnstone in recent as many seasons has prevented the Gers from reaching the national stadium.

However, Van Bronckhorst is fully focused on navigating a route to the final at Hampden this season as he aims to end the club’s 13-year wait to lift Scottish football’s most prestigious trophy.

The Dutchman is missing several creative players for the match with Ryan Kent suspended following his sending off against Aberdeen and Joe Aribo playing for Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations.

However, he reckons the best solution to the problem is bringing some of Rangers exciting academy youngsters into the first-team squad.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Van Bronckhorst said: “I’ve had more academy players involved (in training) this week. I’m really happy with the academy we have.

“There will always be times in a season when you can give your academy players a chance to play in the first team and make their debuts so we need to make sure they know they’re on the right path.

“Hopefully we might be able to do that for this game. It’s a chance for me to rotate my squad a little bit and use more players.

“It’s always nice when you’re able to do that. It’s a chance for me to give minutes to players who haven’t played much in recent weeks or players coming back from injury.

“Charlie (McCann) and Leon (King) were on the bench against Aberdeen and Alex Lowry is also in the squad for this game.

“He’s another big talent coming through the academy and I’m always happy to dip into the youth academy where possible and I think this game is perfect to do that.

“It’s important to have a good balance in your team, though, because you want some flexibility in players you can use in different positions.

“You cannot have a squad full of creativity but when you lose some players that bring creativity, it makes it a bit more difficult but it creates opportunities for others within our squad.

“We have some youngsters coming through who can also fit that creative role, so for me it’s about making sure we have the best players available to win the game and I’m full of confidence that we will.”

The previous meeting between the two sides saw the Forthbank outfit leave Ibrox with a point following a goalless draw back in 2013.

Darren Young’s side currently occupy sixth place in SPFL League Two and will arrive in Govan as massive underdogs to upset the odds.

However, Van Bronckhorst, who has enjoyed a near-perfect start to his Ibrox reign, is eager to eliminate any talk of a cup shock.

He stated: “This cup is very important because it’s the shortest route to win a major prize, so from that perspective we’ll do everything to win it.

“Every prize you play for you have to approach with the same intention and intensity as you always have because you want to play in finals.

“I had that as a player and I have the same feeling as a coach, so we need to make sure we’re able to win another major prize for this club.

“We’re approaching Stirling Albion no differently to any other team. We’ve watched footage of their games, we did some analysis on the way they play and trained tactically over the last couple of days.

“Of course, we have to respect our opponent. They play a couple of levels below us in a lower league but it’s a cup game and anything can happen, so we have to make sure we’re in the next round.

“Our intention will always be the same and I told the players to make sure we’re doing the things we have to do.

“We see this game as another opportunity to get minutes under our belts, develop our game plan and develop our movement within games.

“Maybe in the past when you play teams you don’t know that well and don’t have much footage on it was hard but we’re well prepared.”