I'm a better person and a better goalie since I left..now I'll push Jack hard to make Gers better too

LIAM KELLY left Rangers as a boy but is back as a man.

- ANDY NEWPORT

The Scotland squad keeper is all grown up now but knows the next challenge ahead of him certainly won't be child's play.

The former Gers academy kid is back six years after he was forced to quit his boyhood heroes in search of first-team football.

Ironically, that's likely what he will be giving up having sacrificed regular action as Motherwell captain in order to sign up as understudy to undisputed Light Blues No.1 Jack Butland.

As a challenge, they don't come much tougher than trying to shift the former England shotstopper from his nailed-down slot in Philippe Clement's line-up.

But Kelly insists he's returning in a much better position to make a pitch for a starting role than when he left for Livingston in 2016.

"I am a far better goalkeeper now, a far better person as well," he said after joining up with his new team-mates at their Dutch training camp. "I have over 250 games under my belt now.

"That is why I left in the first place, I needed to play. I knew at 22 I needed to go and play. I still had a year left on my contract when I left. I spoke to the goalie coach Colin Stewart and said I needed to go and play and he agreed.

"Big Robby McCrorie is away to do that just now with Killie and it will be good to see how he gets on. I'm far better for all the experiences I had. I have been in a lot of Scotland squads as well. I am better for it.