IAN DURRANT has been there, done it and got a few t-shirts along the way. He has been hailed as a hero and is now a father figure to the stars of the future.

He has also taken his share of knocks, lived through the lows while hoping that the glory days would one day return to Rangers.

As he helps his Murray Park kids on the road to first team football, Durrant can see light at the end of the tunnel at Ibrox as Mark Warburton leads the revolution, the 53-year-old transforming an underperforming squad and giving supporters belief once again after a stunning start to the season.

It is all positive for Rangers right now, but Durrant doesn’t need to think back long to remember one of the ultimate lows.

Just days after friend, former team-mate and colleague Ally McCoist was placed on gardening leave last December, he was removed from his first team coaching role and put in charge of the Gers’ kids.

It was interim boss Kenny McDowall who was forced to make the call, the order coming from the then under-fire board as Rangers continued to toil on and off the park.

Plenty – from the regime to the management team - has changed in the months since, but Durrant remains in position, determined to do his best for the club.

“I was disappointed at the time by the manner of how it happened,” he said.

“For what I’d given the club, I’d have thought they could have taken five minutes to come and tell me I was being demoted, rather than getting a phone call telling me that I was going to be doing this.

“But I was still in a job and I couldn’t walk about with my head down. This is another project with the kids and if they’d seen me moping about it wouldn’t help them.

“So I came in and got on with it. I love it. I did it at Kilmarnock and I did it here when I first came back.

“It gave me a wee jolt and working with them gave me a boost when I needed it because it was hard. The boys have given me a lift.

“We had a meeting and told them how I work. I told them I’d promote them as quickly as I could and try to give them a chance,

“We have a smaller group now, which is great. Over the years we’ve had 30 players but maybe not a lot of quality. Now we’ve quality more than quantity.”

The move down the ladder to a youth coaching position may not have been Durrant’s chosen career path, but it is a position he is determined to thrive in.

His demotion came amid the fall out of McCoist’s departure as Lee McCulloch and Gordon Durie were handed first team responsibilities.

The decision rankled Durrant, but the way the situation unfolded hurt the nine-in-a-row hero.

He said: “You could say respect. The way it was done...Kenny was told by certain board members that I was to be demoted and he phoned me. Someone from the club should have told me face to face.

“If they were going to do it the Rangers way it wouldn’t have taken much. That was the sickener, but you get on with it don’t you?”

Durrant may have been inside Murray Park in the closing months of last season, but he was still on the outside as Rangers looked to rescue a disastrous campaign that would ultimately end with them condemned to another campaign in the Championship.

The arrival of Warburton and David Weir in the summer has been the catalyst for change at Ibrox, but Durrant is pleased to have retained his role in the new set-up.

He said: “That was great. The manager could have wanted his own staff but at the first meeting with him and Davie, they asked me what I wanted to do and I told them I was enjoying working with the Under-20s.

“They just told me that was my job. He’s the captain of the ship now and I stay out his way as much as I can. But if he needs help, I am there to do that.”

Having endured the darkest days of Rangers’ recent history, Durrant is now eager to play his part in ensuring there is a bright future at Ibrox.

With a new board in place at the top of the Marble Staircase and Warburton and Weir making an instant impact in the dugout, there is a fresh feel and renewed optimism around the club.

It is a welcome change and a relief for Durrant as he looks to play his part in Rangers’ recovery once again.

He said: “It’s like night and day. You have people who care about the football club.

“You see the things that are happening. There’s a new indoor facility here, through the Rangers Lotto, there’s extra ground staff to maintain pitches better - everything.

“John Gilligan, Paul Murray and Mr King have come in and everything they’ve promised, they are producing.

“There’s a brightness. The team is playing really well and it is filtering down through everyone. Everyone comes in bright and breezy every day rather than looking over their shoulder every couple of minutes.”

* Rangers legend Ian Durrant was promoting the Rangers Youth Development Company and their official, weekly Rangers Lotto game at Murray Park.

All profits from the sale of Rangers Lotto tickets is directed to Rangers Football Club’s Youth Programme – which gives fans the chance to win big prizes and help support youth development at the same time.

Fans interested in becoming Official Rangers Lotto Agents can email rydc@rangers.co.uk, call 0141 427 4914 or visit www.rangerslotto.co.uk.