THE HARD WORK STARTS NOW! Teenage hero Findlay Curtis has achieved nothing yet, warns Rangers legend Ian Durrant

For any aspiring footballer, climbing the mountain is never the hardest part. It’s staying up there.

Six months after navigating the foothills by making his Rangers’ debut against Fraserburgh, Findlay Curtis breathed the rarefied air of Champions League football on Tuesday against Panathinaikos.

A first senior goal not only changed the complexion of the tie. At a stroke, the 19-year-old’s world turned upside down.

He’s no longer another face in the crowd. He now enjoys a public profile. The trade-off for that euphoric moment is that a level of expectation now follows.

Many have discovered this pressure to be suffocating. Long is the list of those who flew too close to the sun.

Ian Durrant remembers the day his own dreams were first realised like it was yesterday. Coming off the field after a 3-0 win at Cappielow on April 20, 1985, the then 18-year-old’s first thought was to ensure his first game for his boyhood heroes wasn’t his last.

‘Morton away,’ he smiled. ‘Coisty got a hat-trick. Any more?’

There was actually. Durrant had all the talent in the world. Yet he counts himself fortunate that the club’s financial position 40 years ago necessitated the promotion of young players. The door was open and he walked through it.

‘I think what helped me then was the club was redeveloping at the stadium,’ he recalled.

‘So myself, Derek Ferguson, Robert Fleck and Hugh Burns were given the opportunity because there wasn’t a lot of money to spend on players.

‘We never really had the academy. We were more apprentices.

‘I didn’t think for a minute I’d be a Jock Wallace player as he liked ones who were six-foot plus and could head the ball further than I could kick it.

‘But he came across on Friday and he just gave me two complimentary tickets.

‘He just said: “Right, you’re playing tomorrow”. There was no time to think about it.

‘That was it. Just get a good night’s sleep. Cheers, gaffer. And you just go and play.’

Much has changed in football and society in the past 40 years, yet Durrant’s experience back then still carries echoes of what Findlay is going through at the moment.

Now 58, Durrant simply looked upon the pressure to become a first-team regular as a privilege. He was a nailed-on starter by the time Graeme Souness arrived with an open cheque book in 1986.

While he can’t walk in Findlay’s shoes for him, he can tell him what’s non-negotiable.

‘You can’t just kind of go: “Okay, I’ve achieved something”,’ he warned.

‘Findlay will be flying just now in terms of getting a goal in the Champions League qualifier.

‘But he knows it will be a rocky road. Now it’s a question of how he goes about it.

‘That’s when your manager and coaches have to see things. Just give him enough to feed him. But, if he performs like that, he’ll be a starter.

‘The young players, they’re up down. The manager will know that. It’s hard work all the time. If you don’t put the hard work in, you’ll not get it back.’

Thankfully, there appears to be no complacency in Curtis. Self-assured yet grounded as he spoke on Tuesday, the importance of his nearest and dearest shone through.

‘Families play a big part,’ said Durrant. ‘I know for a fact he’s still living with his parents. They’ll give him the guidance.

‘But also the manager and the coaches, they see him every day. You’re a big fish in a small pond here.

‘It’s a different beat now. I was lucky enough when I made my debut that there were no mobile phones so you could get away with it a wee bit.

‘They’re consummate professionals now in terms of diet and everything. Everything gets monitored. He’ll know how to cope with it.’

Durrant had more than a hunch that Curtis would be throw in this midweek.

Last week, together with Lee McCulloch and John Brown, he broke bread with Russell Martin at the club’s training centre.

While it’s nothing new to hear managers talk about promoting youth, Durrant left the get-together believing the new man at the helm meant all he said.

‘He said if they’re good enough, no matter the age, they’ll get a game,’ he said.

‘I think the manager here can go and get players. He’s taken, I wouldn’t say a gamble, but he’s got a good understanding of his best youth players. He’s integrated them into training.’

It’s all a delicate balancing act, of course, and incumbent on Martin to judge when to play his teenagers and when to rest them. Every side also needs experienced heads to educate the new boys.

‘You’re in a tunnel,’ Durrant recalled of his formative years. ‘I’m standing next to Graeme Souness. I lived a mile down the road and I’m playing with one of the finest Scottish midfielders.

‘I’m playing with an England captain (Terry Butcher), Chris Woods, Ray Wilkins, Trevor Francis. I lived the dream playing with David Cooper.

‘Later on, Walter (Smith) had John Brown, Goughy, the Goalie (Andy Goram). Sometimes, we’d just police our own dressing room. If we knew it wasn’t going right, we’d fix it.’

This is a different era with different faces, yet the level of expectation hasn’t changed.

When Martin took the opportunity to ask questions of Durrant, McCulloch and Brown at Auchenhowie, the answers were short and to the point.

‘We told him - you just need to win,’ Durrant said.

‘That’s the be all and end all. Get the proper players, get your recruitment right.

‘He was good, just the way he outlined the way he wants to go.

‘He wants his team so fit. He said that. the way he plays, it might take the last 10-15 minutes to break teams down, but the only way they’re going to break them down is if they’re fitter than the other teams.’

*Ian Durrant unveiled The Big Blue Jackpot, Rangers Youth Development Company’s new Lotto prize structure for the 2025-26 season.