Stevie Smith is aiming to play 'out of his skin' for Rangers to earn a future at the club.
Player aims to make most of opportunity
Stevie Smith is aiming to play 'out of his skin' after being handed a Rangers lifeline.
The 23-year-old thought he would never play for the club again after he failed to feature in Walter Smith's plans this term.
But a horrendous injury list saw him receive a surprise starting role in the 3-1 win against Motherwell earlier this month, and he featured again in last week's 3-2 victory over Hibernian.
Now he intends to make the most of his opportunity to show the Rangers boss that he does have a future at the club.
He said: "Every time I play, I have to play out of my skin and be involved as much as possible and use it to my advantage to try to earn a place here.
"I'd been thinking there was maybe no way back for the majority of the season to be honest with you.
Chance
"I had the chance to go on loan at the start of the season and spoke to the manager and thought if I stayed and had a good pre-season, I would have the chance to play again.
"But that didn't materialise. I just thought I'd never get the chance to play for Rangers again but I have and I'm thankful for that."
He added: "I've been fit for the majority of the season. It's just that I was playing for the reserves every week and never featuring at the weekend.
"I just had to work really hard at training and be patient and wait for a chance. I've got a chance now and it's up to me to take it.
"There are a lot of players here going through the same thing, not being involved and not playing. That's the most difficult side.
"It was harder to take when I was actually fit and not playing because when you're injured, you're not available for selection and there is nothing you can do about it.
"But when you are fit and training every day, that's the hardest part to take."
Cup hopes
Smith, who has switched from full-back to left midfield for his latest involvement in the first team, is now looking forward to playing in Saturday's Scottish Cup semi-final against St Mirren.
"I'm really looking forward to it," he said.
"It's a cup semi-final and it's always massive to get to a final.
"I was at the game when we played St Mirren a few weeks ago in the league and I think we played really well in the first half.
"But in the second half, they showed a determination to come back into the game and I thought they played really well.
"I watched a bit of their game against Motherwell last week. Again, they did well and they will be confident going into the game.
"Playing at Hampden might be a new thing for some of them but that could give them a boost as well."
