RANGERS legend Davie Cooper established himself in senior football as a youngster - with a little help from former Celtic star Tommy Callaghan.

Cooper played in the same Clydebank side as one-time Hoops midfielder Callaghan when he was starting out on his career in the mid-1970s.

And Bankies goalkeeping legend Jim Gallacher reckons the winger benefitted greatly from playing alongside the left-sided player and other time-served veterans.

Gallacher said: "Bill Munro was our manager at Clydebank at the time and he was brilliant. But we had a nucleus of older players in the team who were also very influential.

"Guys like Tommy Callaghan and Jimmy Lumsden would talk to the younger players on the field all the time during games. I would say Coop learned a lot from that.

"You don't have that in modern football so much any more, experienced players influencing the young players coming through.

"Clubs in the lower division back then got older players dropping down a level or two as they came to the tail end of their careers.

"Guys like Callaghan and the Lumsden were unsung heroes at that time. People didn't realise how much input they had into the Clydebank team."

He added: "Tommy and Jimmy would walk pass Davie on the field and say things like: 'You should have done this there'. They passed on vital information to him and he flourished because of it.

"Having said that, I think Davie would have been a success wherever he started out. He had a God-given talent.

"He went on record once as saying he was an entertainer not a footballer - and he was exactly right."