Dundee remain confident Wednesday’s rearranged Scottish Premiership match at home to Rangers will go ahead as planned – live on Sky Sports.
Heavy rain caused the original tie at Dens Park to be postponed on March 17, and similar weather this week has raised further concerns the fixture will once again be called off.
If that were to happen, Dundee managing director John Nelms insists it will not be moved to another venue or new date later this week. Instead he would hope to play it next week, after the scheduled final round of pre-split fixtures.
Wednesday 10th April 7:00pm
Kick off 8:00pm
Dundee’s game at home to Motherwell on Saturday went ahead after a third pitch inspection two hours before kick-off.
“We’re as confident as we can be,” Nelms told Sky Sports News when asked if he thinks the game will go ahead. “We’ve done everything we can do to make the pitch playable and right now the areas of concern we have covered and we’ve had them covered since yesterday. The timing of the rain is always an issue here.
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Watch highlights of Motherwell’s win over Dundee at Dens Park after a late pitch inspection
“We’ve done everything we can do to get the water draining out of the pitch. We did that before Saturday’s game but once again it was a timing issue. We got that game on and the pitch didn’t look pretty but it played well. It was safe under foot and the ball rolled and bounced the way it should do.
“The covers are on and we have heavier covers on the areas that caused a little bit of an issue. The plan is to keep those covers on, continue the work the groundsmen have been doing and we’ll see what happens in the next 24 hours.
“The rest of the pitch deals with the weather quite well. We have three areas that struggle. Keeping the water off those areas as long as we can is what is key.”
When asked if the club would move this fixture to another venue or date this week Nelms said “no, absolutely not” before adding the club’s contingency plan would instead be to play the game on April 16 or 17 during the Scottish Cup week.
Dundee have no fixture that week, while Rangers face Hearts on April 21 in their Scottish Cup semi-final.
The final games before the league splits into a top and bottom six are due to take place this weekend, with Dundee at Aberdeen on Saturday, while Rangers visit Ross County live on Sky Sports on Sunday.
Dundee currently occupy the final spot for a top-half finish and would seal it if they were to win either of their final two games. Closest challengers Hibernian and Motherwell meet on Saturday, meaning all three clubs are in with a chance of finishing sixth.
Dundee’s match against Rangers on March 17 was called off less than two hours before kick-off
Nelms added: “Luckily we don’t play the split until the 27th [of April] so we still have the 16th and 17th of next week, which I’ve been looking at a lot of weather reports for – and it’s supposed to be dry for the four days prior to those days so you would think that would be the logical move.
“We want to play with our fans and their fans. That’s the reason we do this – we’re an entertainment business and it needs to be entertaining for the fans. That’s the foremost point of this whole thing so there are no other contingency plans from our side other than the 16th and 17th.
“Right now the idea is the game is on, and if the game’s not on we’ll have a contingency plan that will be put forward to us at that point in time.”
Docherty planning for Rangers
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Dundee manager Tony Docherty is planning to face Rangers on Wednesday night, live on Sky, despite doubts about the condition of the pitch at the Scot Foam Stadium.
Dundee manager Tony Docherty told Sky Sports News he is not thinking about a potential postponement.
“I’ve got in my head, and they players have got in their head, that the game is on so we prepare accordingly for that until someone tells me otherwise,” he said.
“We’re training on a training pitch that’s quite similar in terms of it’s wet. We’ve had ridiculous weather up here, it’s been torrential.
“My job is to prepare the team accordingly and we’re just getting ready for what’s going to be a good game on Wednesday night.”
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