By Phil Tooley

This article originally appeared in the Morecambe Matchday Magazine

Peter Leven (24) grew up within a stone's throw of Ibrox Park, home of the club he loves, and he began playing for the mighty Rangers at the tender age of nine.

He came through the ranks and on 29^th April 2001 he was selected by manager Dick Advocaat as a sub in the biggest SPL fixture of all, at home to arch rivals Celtic. Celtic returned home with a 3-0 win, Moravcik (2) and Larsson the scorers, 50057 the crowd. Peter didn't come on, but he hit the headlines being merely 17 years of age.

Later that summer, his World all but collapsed though. In a pre-season game against Tranmere Rovers he injured his cruciate ligament and was forced to sit out the next two years of his fledgling career.

He was initially told by Doctors that he'd be out for six months, but the injury was much worse than initially feared and Leven had to undergo knee reconstruction surgery. During his time out Advocaat continually reassured him that he'd come back stronger, always asking how he was. "Dick was brilliant with me, before he left, when I was still injured, he told me he hoped to see me in the first team soon but obviously things didn't work out for me and I needed a fresh start."

One man who kept a disconsolate Peter going was his Uncle, ex Republic of Ireland and Celtic player Tommy Coyne, who persuaded him not to give in. Incidentally Coyne's son, Peter's cousin, also Tommy, is a striker at Dumbarton and was a youngster at Kilmarnock whilst Leven was there.

His recovery from injury was well documented in a TV Documentary called Blue Heaven, which featured youngsters at Ibrox, "There was a programme on that followed young players as they made their way through the ranks and it followed me through the injury, about how I was coming back and my week to week progress. It was on for about nine or ten weeks. It was a bit cringing when I watched it but it's good to look back on, I still have the videos!"

A number of non playing sub appearances followed that big day against Celtic and before the fateful day against Tranmere.

By the time Peter had regained his fitness, Advocaat had gone and Alex McLeish had taken over and Leven never really got to know the new boss, "Because I was injured, I never got to know him. He never came to talk to me or anything and I realised I wasn't going anywhere at Rangers. It was hard to accept but at the end of the day, life goes on and I needed to move on for the sake of my future."

A call to former Rangers player Ian Durrant led to him moving to Kilmarnock, "I'd known 'Jasper' since I was a wee boy and he told me when I left Rangers, even though I still had a year and a half left on my contract, I needed a fresh start so we came to a mutual agreement that allowed me to walk away and Ian invited me to Kilmarnock."

Killie Boss Jim Jeffries said at the time, "Peter turned up a stone overweight, I told hime he had ability but that he needed to go away and show the right professionalism over the summer and come back for pre-season in shape."

He did that, got a deal to Christmas and then was offered a further two and a half years at Rugby Park.

His Kilmarnock, and indeed senior debut, came as a sub at Hibernian, he came on at 0-0 with just under half an hour left and his new side went on to win 1-0 with Kris Boyd scoring the goal from a free kick. "It was a good day for me to get back into football, so I enjoyed that."

A League Cup game at Hearts gave Peter his first start, Killies lost 2-1. "It was on the day of the game at Tynecastle when the Gaffer named the team that I found out I was starting, I scored in that one passed Craig Gordon, I got another against him in another game, so not bad, two against a £9m goalkeeper. He has to be the best goalkeeper in the World! It was a good start, a good debut."

His first league start was a remarkable game, a 5-2 win over Dundee United with Kris Boyd scoring all five, "That was a good game, I set up three of the goals for the big man. He got man of the match for his five goals but I think that I should have got that, a good game, we played very well in that one."

A terrific first season but 2005-06 brought him back to Earth, he was a regular at the start of the season before his knee began to give problem again and he was out from September until April, "I had a bit of a problem with my knee again, I had to have it cleaned up a bit, I went in just after Christmas to have it done, it was a residual of the original reconstruction surgery."

Last season was all about the League Cup, wins over Queen of the South, Motherwell and Falkirk took them to the Hampden Park final and a clash with Hibernian. "It was frightening! At any level, getting to a cup final is good, but to get to Hampden Park in a final, with 52,000 there is unbelievable, even though we got beaten 5-1 it was great, mind you I went off when it was just 1-0 with 30-odd minutes left. It was a good day despite getting beaten, but it's still good to look back on."

Another memorable day last season came against Gers, "I played in a 2-2 draw with Rangers but, in truth, against Celtic I always felt that I was up for it more. It's hard to say but the hatred between Rangers and Celtic but I always wanted to try as hard as I could but, as a Rangers fan, playing against a lot of people that you know, people like Barry Ferguson, I idolised him when I was a youngster, I used to clean his boots, so it was terrific playing against him on front of 50-odd thousand."

In another game against Rangers, that was lost 3-1, Peter saw a penalty at a crucial time saved by Allan McGregor. Usual taker Stephen Naismith was the man fouled for the pen and was off the park at the time! Leven knows the man now at Rangers is quality, "He's a very good player, absolutely very good. Works his socks off, reminds me of Jamie Ward a bit, but he'll be great for the future of Scottish football."

Whilst at Rugby Park, International honours came his way in the shape of two U21 caps, as a half time sub in a 2-1 home loss against Sweden (at Falkirk) and then as a starter in Belfast for a game won by Northern Ireland. Gregor Robertson played in both of those games.

In the summer, Kilmarnock offered Peter a new contract, he explains why he didn't sign, "You know when your time's up, when you've gone as far as you can with a club. When you come down here and look at the leagues, hopefully Chesterfield can get up into League One, then the Championship and you know if that happens, you've cracked it, it's a challenge and I like a challenge."

Lee Richardson offered Leven a two year deal after his successful trial, which began publicly with the pre-season game at Matlock Town, he scored one, but the Scot chose to sign on for just one year, "Everybody wants to better themselves but I didn't know much about the English leagues so I just wanted to see how I'd settle in, away from my family and decided to sign on for just one year."

The big Scottish and Irish contingent here at Saltergate has seen a big Rangers-Celtic rivalry so how did Peter feel a couple of weeks ago when Rangers beat Celtic 3-2, "Absolutely delighted, over the moon and long may it continue!"

Leven's showings in central midfield in recent weeks have been excellent and he's showing us all South of the Border exactly what Rangers saw in him from the age of nine.

Phil Tooley