Rangers fans are waking up this morning still without any indication of whether the Scottish Premiership clash with Dundee is going ahead.
The Gers support is drawn from far and wide and you can be rest-assured there are some Goliath trips to Dens Park which are already under way ahead of the scheduled 8pm kick off.
But what is the sketch when it comes to Dundee’s surface and when can Rangers fans expect confirmation?
Here’s everything we know so far about Dundee’s shoddy Dens Park pitch and whether or not Rangers will get to play their Scottish Premiership game in hand.
Dundee v Rangers facing fresh pitch postponement
So let’s go back to the beginning.
Rangers’ pre-international break visit to Dundee was postponed earlier in March, causing some chaos with the broadcasters and heading into Sunday’s Old Firm.
Rangers had held a two point advantage in the Scottish Premiership but the postponement of the Dundee game – the fourth postponement at Dens Park this season – meant Celtic had a lead to defend heading into Ibrox at the weekend.
Following a 3-3 draw, Rangers clearly want the chance to regain that advantage but Dundee’s pitch is once again an obstacle with Sky Sports also hoping to televise the game.
With the Met Office forecasting heavy rainfall, Dundee have been out spinning the situation but it’s clear there could be some big challenges to getting the game on.
This comes after Dundee’s cabbage patch hosted Motherwell, who defeated the Dee 3-2 at the weekend courtesy of a last-gasp turnaround.
Dundee managing director John Nelms said: “The pitch didn’t look pretty, but it played well (against Motherwell).
“It was safe under foot and the ball rolled and bounced like it’s supposed to.
“We have done everything we can do to make the pitch playable and, right now, the areas of concern we have covered and have had covered since yesterday.”
What are Rangers saying?
Rangers manager Philippe Clement was quite forthright in his frustration at the Dundee pitch situation.
Claiming that the repeated call-offs are not becoming of a top flight club, the Belgian claims Scottish football as a whole suffers from this exceptional standard of tin-pottery.
The Rangers boss and his team travelled to a hotel last night nonetheless, but it’s not a situation which Big Phil is particularly enamoured with.
Philippe Clement said :“It’s a crazy situation to go in a top league that you don’t know the day before – and we’re going to travel now in half an hour or in one hour – but we’re going to travel there and we’re going to stay there in a hotel and you don’t know yet if the game is on tomorrow or not.
“So that’s a really weird situation. OK it can happen in extreme circumstances and I don’t think in the last few years in all the top leagues it ever happened.
“But now when it’s raining in Scotland there is every time a problem and it’s not that in Scotland normally it’s a lot of sunny days so it’s a bad situation for the league and for Dundee themselves also.”
Scottish Premiership clash in jeopardy
Well, for those Rangers fans making a long-ole’ journey up to Dundee they will just have to wait and see.
There is a pitch inspection scheduled at 11am where the match referee Don Robertson will make a call on the surface.
If it is not deemed playable then Rangers, presumably, will get a training session into their players before heading back to Glasgow ahead of the weekend’s trip to Ross County.
John Nelms has claimed that the match could then be moved to the final free-week in the calendar, the situation complicated by the impending Scottish Premiership split.
The Dundee director has suggested that if the game cannot go ahead, then it will be played next week on either the 16th or 17th of the month.
The bungling Dundee chief – who really has approached this entire thing with a brass neck befitting the corridors of Parkhead – also talked down the match being moved to a neutral venue.
Well, if there’s no choice John, the poor management and potential lack of investment in your two-bit pitch can’t be allowed to hold up the league.
Rangers manager Philippe Clement is very much open to a change of venue, claiming it’s a genuinely “logical” solution.
