Rangers boss Gio van Bronckhorst was not shy of handing out opportunities to academy players as his side ended the Premiership campaign with a 3-1 win at the weekend.

Adam Devine, Charlie McCann, Leon King, Tony Weston, Ross McCausland and Cole McKinnon were all given minutes on the pitch to showcase their quality at first-team level.

Lowry caught the eye with a goal and an assist from midfield but he was not the only youngster who impressed on the day as Devine put in an exciting showing at the back.

FFC recently published an article suggesting that the right-back may be the next Nathan Patterson who can play a back-up role to James Tavernier and be sold for a profit in the future, but this matured performance against Hearts suggests that he could have a brighter future at Rangers.

Instead of being viewed as a player who can be a squad player and moved on in a few years to rake in a few million, he could be seen as the long-term replacement for the captain.

This is why van Bronckhorst must finally unleash the 19-year-old on a regular basis at the start of the 2022/23 campaign to help him ease into the role.

Journalist Craig Vickers was impressed by his display against Hearts as he praised him after the match, Tweeting: "Devine isn't as clean technically as Patterson and doesn't have his self-belief in possession, but he looks like another powerful runner in that position."

Reporter Joshua Barrie replied to this by Tweeting: "Thought Devine took his chance over this past week well. Next season’s understudy?"

These comments suggest that he did enough to pass the eye test and the statistics back up that he enjoyed a great afternoon in the Scottish top-flight.

As per SofaScore, he completed 84% of his passes and 100% of his attempted dribbles in the game as he proved that he is comfortable on the ball and likes to get forward. He also made a whopping six clearances to go along with one interception and two tackles as he got stuck in defensively and worked hard for the team throughout the 90 minutes.

The fact that he played the entire match also indicates that van Bronckhorst trusts him to perform throughout an entire first-team match, which bodes well heading into next season. The Dutch head coach must now continue to give him chances as he moulds him into being Tavernier's successor in the years to come.

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