BORNA Barisic stepped up his recovery from injury by playing 45 minutes for the Rangers Reserves in their 5-0 win over Kilmarnock.

The Croatian hasn’t featured for Steven Gerrard’s side since the defeat to Livingston in September and the Ibrox boss cast his eye over the action on Monday.

Countryman Nikola Katic played for 68 minutes, while Lee Wallace got a full match under his belt.

Rangers ran out comfortable winners as striker Andy Dallas hit a hat-trick while Jordan Houston and Dapo Mebude were also on target for the Gers.

And Under-20s boss Graeme Murty was impressed with the performance from Barisic as he closes in on a return to Gerrard's first team squad this week.

He told RangersTV: “I thought they got out of it what they needed.

“Borna needed to get back and he gave us 45 minutes – and you can see the quality the guy has got.

“He has a wonderful left foot and good range, and the other guys came in similarly and got out of the game what they needed which was good for us and it is good for my players to go and see that level of player, that level of approach and that level of professionalism as they all want to be there.

“They can almost touch it now – everyone in that group has trained with the first team and everyone no has been in front of the manager’s eyes today.

“It is good for them to go and mix it with the first-team players and see what that level is all about.”