Young Leon thrilled by Beale start

LEON KING has delivered an early insight into life at Rangers under Michael Beale.

The young Light Blues defender has been learning on the job this season after being thrown into the limelight due to the injury crisis at the heart of the Ibrox defence.

Connor Goldson and Ben Davies are set to return to training in the next couple of days in a major boost ahead of the Premiership restart against Hibs on Thursday.

But John Souttar and Filip Helander remain long-term absentees, who 18-year-old King has also been filling in for in recent months.

Former boss Gio van Bronckhorst pitched the youngster into big Champions League games against the likes of Liverpool and Napoli, as well as making him a regular in the Premiership.

New boss Beale handed him another start in the comfortable friendly win over Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday and King, left, wants to continue pushing on under Beale.

He hailed the start to life under Beale as ‘amazing’ and heaped praise on the ‘intensity’ in training since his arrival from QPR.

King said: “I thought it was great to give the whole squad a run out back in front of the fans at Ibrox, and it was a commanding victory as well.

“It’s been coming. We’ve been training with an intensity since the new manager has come in.

“It’s been amazing and I’m glad to be part of it. We want to keep clean sheets in every game.”

King was also pleased to see fellow youngsters Adam Devine, Robbie Fraser, Charlie McCann and Alex Lowry feature against the Germans.

He told Rangers TV: “It’s amazing and the boys deserve it. They’ve been doing unbelievable in the Lowland League so it’s congratulations to Robbie [Fraser] for making his debut.

“I’m buzzing [to return to league action]. It will be good to get back out there and play league games in front of the fans.”