Rangers rookie Calvin Bassey has earned plenty of praise at Ibrox since joining the club in the summer and going on to make his first professional appearances for the Glasgow club.
Bassey, 20, came through the youth ranks at Leicester and impressed in a spate of appearances as the club went 27 matches unbeaten at the start of the season.
But all of this – not least the unbeaten run – would come to a crashing halt as Rangers were defeated 3-2 by St. Mirren in the League Cup.
Bassey would give away a first-half penalty, clumsily being caught the wrong side of St. Mirren star Dylan Connolly in a blow from which Rangers would struggle to recover.
The defender would then be caught out by Connolly again in the run-up to St. Mirren’s second goal, as the winger squared to Jonathon Obika who found Jamie McGrath.
Unsurprisingly, the youngster was eventually hooked for Borna Barisic but the Croatian international could do little to prevent Rangers crashing to a genuinely awful defeat at St. Mirren Park.
This was probably the single worst performance of Bassey’s fledgeling career and one which he’ll be in a rush to forget as he looks to build on his undoubted potential.
But the truth is Bassey must learn from this experience as he looks to build on the early success in his Rangers career and properly deputise at this level for the likes of Barisic.
Some of the criticism levelled at the kid has been pretty over the top, but the hard work starts now as the defender’s honeymoon period came to a crashing halt in the crashing rain of Paisley.
Bassey might’ve been at fault for two of the goals in the shock defeat to St. Mirren but Steven Gerrard certainly shoulders much of the blame for a needlessly risky team selection.
