'Hopefully a catalyst': Rangers new hero gets rave reviews as original position revealed

He made it more than worth their while when he scored such a memorable goal in front of them to set the Ibrox side on their way to a fine win against Panathinaikos in Russell Martin’s first game in charge.

The 19-year-old, who was making only his second Rangers start, later explained that he had his own fan club in the crowd; his mum and dad, his girlfriend’s mum and dad, his brother and sister and several pals. He managed to pick them out at the end of the Champions League qualifier, amid the pandemonium.

He might have spotted someone else looking down beaming with pride from the Bill Struth Main Stand. In attendance in his role as a match analyst for Rangers TV, Kevin Thomson won’t pretend that he shaped the player’s career or had anything like as profound an influence as that. But Curtis was part of the first team Thomson was involved with at Ibrox after the former midfielder started coaching at the Rangers Academy in 2018, initially on a part-time basis.

They were not world beaters at the time, he recalls, but Curtis showed plenty of promise and more importantly at the time, desire. Although Martin deployed him on the left wing on Tuesday night, he initially caught the eye as a striker.

“I worked with him when I got my first job at Rangers with Greg Statt,” recalls Thomson. “He was part the ’06 group, which was under-13s – he was only a 12-year-old lad. When I first came across him he was more of a goalscorer, more of a ‘9’. He was running in behind and playing on the shoulder, more of a through-the-middle type striker.

Curtis was ‘a brilliant lad’

“He was a brilliant lad, great to work with. It was probably not the strongest group that ’06 group at the time but it was probably one of the most enjoyable groups I have had to work with. When you think of some of the boys, the tiny, miniscule way that I have helped these lads is smaller than a pin drop. But it was still a pleasure to work with them for that period and watch them grow.”

“Although it was many moons ago, I could almost name team now,” he adds. “Cooper Knox, who’s been with Stirling Albion. Crispin McLean, who I think was down at Fleetwood, big Niall Rogerson from Dumfries who was at Queen of the South last year. There’s Zander Hutton (who is still at Rangers), he was also part of that team. For a group who did not have a brilliant, brilliant reputation, a lot of them have gone on and done all right. Fingers crossed Findlay can be a catalyst for that group.”

Curtis has certainly showed what’s possible. It’s not often that Thomson is left speechless, and fortunately he wasn’t struck dumb on Tuesday given his reporting responsibilities. However, he acknowledged that it was emotional to see someone he remembers chucking a bib at when he was 12-years-old giving seasoned professionals such a torrid time.

“I know he has come back in top, top condition,” Thomson said. “He has impressed the manager when he has had opportunities, not just with his fitness levels but also with his technical ability. The top end of the pitch at a club like Rangers is ultra-competitive so any opportunity he does get, like the other night, he has to take it with both hands and try to stake a claim for himself moving forward. That’s the key – to get in and stay in rather than just having a flashing moment.

“He has got the type of personality that I think will relish that. He’s obviously a big Bluenose so it would have been a dream for him. I was proud as punch watching him. I am sure he will be the first to say that it wasn’t his brilliant best performance but he got a brilliant goal at a critical time and he did some unbelievably industrious work to help the team back down the pitch.

“He was not only involved for the goal but he was also involved in the second big incident when he took a took a great first touch and cut across the defender’s body to get the lad a second yellow card, which was no doubt a big factor in the game.”

Thomson might get the chance to assess Curtis again on Saturday, providing the teenager is not being wrapped in cotton wool before Wednesday’s return leg in Athens. The 40-year-old is due back at Ibrox again for the friendly against Middlesbrough, where he spent an injury disrupted spell after leaving Rangers in 2010.