GRAEME MURTY was full of praise for Rangers goal heroes Ryan Hardie and Liam Burt as the Light Blues beat Hearts in the Scottish Cup on Sunday.

The Gers Under-20s were 5-2 winners in the fourth round tie at Oriam as they knocked out last season’s beaten finalists.

Striker Hardie has spent most of this campaign on loan at St Mirren but he marked his return to Murty’s squad with a hat-trick as Auchenhowie kid Burt hit a double.

The highlight of the midfielder’s performance was a stunning 40-yard effort that rounded off the scoring and clinched an impressive win for the visitors.

Rangers return to Development League action against Dundee on Wednesday night and boss Murty is pleased with the progress his Light Blue kids are making.

“Some of the play, as well as the goals, were outstanding,” he told rangers.co.uk.

“The way we rotated and moved the ball was great, and you have to talk about Ryan Hardie grabbing a couple of goals and Liam Burt topping it off with what has to be the best goal of the round and possibly goal of the season. His vision, execution and the audacity to go and try it was something that really stood out.

“Quite frankly, it took my breath away watching one of our young players on that stage have the confidence to go and try something like that. It speaks volumes for him and where he is at the moment.

“Going and testing themselves in harsh arenas makes them want to try stuff.

“What I would say is we have had limited success at times in games, so we have executed some things in games really well but we haven’t put together a complete performance. I would say [Sunday] wasn’t a complete performance, but we have hit some heights.

“When we can put that together more consistently and be more cohesive in our performance throughout the 90 minutes, then I think you will start to see our young players thrive.”