GRAEME MURTY reckons the Challenge Cup has given strength to the arguments for B teams in Scottish football as Rangers look to progress to the semi-finals this afternoon.

The competition - branded as the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Cup this season - has come in for criticism in recent years as the SPFL have allowed Colt teams and clubs from leagues in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to enter.

Rangers are the only Academy side left in the tournament after overcoming Berwick, Stranraer, Ballymena and Solihull. Now Murty’s side host Wrexham at Ibrox aiming to progress to the last four.

Murty said: “The next step in their development is vital and they need to play against men. We have advocated quite strongly, and we will continue to advocate, a B team for these players.

“They are technically talented, they are physically maturing and a lot of them played in an Under-19 team for Scotland that just beat Germany.

“We need to get the next step right and the Challenge Cup has proven that if you give them the opportunity to learn and develop, they are capable of getting better, of solving the problems against men and not just in Academy football.

“While we give them that diverse mix, their education is going to be so much better for them and it will make them better prepared for the next stage of their carer.

“Hopefully that is with our first team and that is why we are so thankful about being at Ibrox. We are playing against a first team at Ibrox, in a proper, proper stadium and hopefully with thousands rather than hundreds coming to watch. Psychologically, it is a big step for these young men.

“The guys that have played in first teams know what it is like to have expectation, to have noise when they make a mistake or even the noise that gets you carried away when you do something well.

“That is the next part of their development that we can’t actually replicate in a 20s league and that is why we are actively looking for different challenges.”