RANGERS young gun Andy Murdoch has shot his way into Ally McCoist's plans for today's SPFL League One opener against Brechin City at Ibrox.

The 18-year-old midfielder caught the eye in the midweek friendly with Newcastle after coming on as a substitute for Ian Black with 56 minutes of the 1-1 draw gone.

Murdoch's fearless attitude and combative approach won him praise from the stands as he refused to be fazed by United's international stars.

Boss McCoist could be without as many as 10 players for today's fixture, with six of those being new players who are prevented from featuring due to registration rules.

Ross Perry and Kyle Hutton are still injured, it is too early for front- man Dean Shiels to return but defender Emilson Cribari could return from injury to replace the suspended Lee McCulloch.

McCoist said: "Wee Andy did really well against Newcastle. He was terrific in the second half.

"He has certainly played his way into contention for the weekend. He was really aggressive and put himself about.

"Andy turned up all over the park and covered just about every blade of grass, which was great to see.

"He's pretty tenacious - we've a couple like that in the team at the moment if you consider Arnold Peralta, too.

"Andy gets stuck in and that's great but his use of the ball was good as well and I was really happy with him."