WILSON JUST HAS TO SHOW PATIENCE

MARK WARBURTON has admitted his first Rangers signing, Danny Wilson, faces a challenge to reclaim a place in the team at the expense of Dominic Ball.

On-loan Tottenham centre-half Ball’s frustrations at a lack of game time have been allayed by starting the last three matches in the space of eight days.

And those solid displays have put the 20-year-old in position to partner Rob Kiernan for today’s Easter Road examination. Ball has taken full advantage of an injury suffered by Wilson, who now finds himself in reserve. Warburton said: ‘Dom Ball has been excellent — could you drop him right now? He had been frustrated but the other guys had played at a good level in the rest of the games, so why should I drop them?

‘Then Danny got an injury, Dom came in and has done tremendously.

‘Danny’s job now is to get his shirt back. If he has to be patient, he has to be patient.’

Ball will be joined in the squad by fellow Spurs kid Nathan Oduwa, who missed last week’s league match at St Mirren.

While those London lads will return south in the summer to bid for first-team fame, Warburton will hope teenager Ryan Hardie is ready to step into his Rangers side.

The 18-year-old penned a contract extension in midweek to keep him at the club until summer 2018.

When asked if Hardie was progressing towards being a first pick in future, Warburton said: ‘Yes. The danger is you keep looking outside of what you’ve got.

‘I’m a Tottenham fan and you just look at the job the academy has done there — Harry Kane, Tom Carroll, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and Alex Pritchard all coming through.

‘Sometimes it’s too easy to look outside and say we have to recruit from overseas or down south. If Ryan is good enough, then our job is to make sure he gets a chance here.’