RORY LOY has admitted that his lack of competitive football may cost him a starting place in the Scotland Under-21 side to face Belarus, at St Mirren Park, in Saturday's UEFA Championship qualifier.

With the demise of the SPL Reserve League, Loy has had to content himself with practising friendly fire in closed-door games for Rangers.

And despite being on the bench for the Ibrox side in Sunday's Old Firm clash, Loy did not get the call from Gers gaffer Walter Smith.

As such, Scotland under-21 gaffer Billy Stark is almost certain to stick with the front-line partnership of Motherwell's Jamie Murphy and Aberdeen striker Chris Maguire, both of whom start regularly in the SPL.

But the 21-year-old admits he is determined to make the most of any opportunity he gets on Saturday against the Group 10 leaders.

Loy said: "Obviously you hope to get your start but because I am at a club like Rangers, it is not so easy to get into the first team reckoning.

"With Jamie Murphy and Chris Maguire both getting regular first-team football for their clubs, you can understand them starting.

"But if the opportunity comes I intend to take it. If I start or come off the bench, I am just delighted every time I get the chance to pull a Scotland jersey on."

The Ibrox strike prodigy was on loan at Dunfermline last season and admits that a second loan stint after Christmas maybe the answer to his lack of competitive playing time.

Loy said: "Come January I might be looking at a loan but right now I am just getting my head down and focusing as hard as I can on working flat out.

"With the Reserve League not being there any more, whenever there is a game I just try and do my best.

"I have been in the first-team squad at Rangers and on the bench for both of our last two games including the Celtic game.

"But I am just 21 and at a club like Rangers that is still reasonably young.So hopefully it will come for me."

The Scots are part of three-way joint leadership of Group 10, perched on the six-point mark alongside both Belarus and Austria.

And Loy said: "With them being the leaders and the group being so tight with ourselves, Belarus and Austria all on six points, a win would put us three clear of them and that would be a good position to be in.

"That would mean we could be top and it would mean we had also won three of our first four games.

"Obviously it is our home game and the onus is on us.

"But with there being no SPL card hopefully we will get a decent crowd along and make the most of that."

Although the Scots suffered their only loss in three against Austria by a 1-0 margin in Mainz last time out Loy insists they are in positive mood ahead of the battle with Belarus.

The Scotland Under-21 striker said: "I think we can be encouraged by the performance in Austria even although we lost the game - we had by far and away the better of the game, but just didn't take our chances.

"But our game over in Albania was pretty even and we did well to win that one. In Austria we should have taken full points but didn't get a break in front of goal.

"Even a draw out there would have been a good result with them being the top seeds but the performance was definitely a positive one."