Gers punished as Dundee pitch farce sees Clement face Scottish Cup nightmare

Rangers don’t appear to be sending Dundee a Christmas card this year, albeit the 2020 scandal most likely eliminated them from consideration.

The Taysiders have forced to postpone their plans and head back to Govan for the second time this campaign, making it five times overall for the Light Blues.

Rangers’ forfeited opportunity to reclaim the top spot in the Scottish Premiership is not the only consequence; they will also have to wait until the following week to play Dundee.

Rangers were penalised for Dundee’s incompetence prior to the cup match.

The choice might have been made far earlier, as Gers manager Philippe Clement indicated in his pre-game press conference, and he will be furious about the wasted time on the practice field:

“So, when are we going to play if we can’t play tomorrow? Is Thursday the date then?

In order for us to train tomorrow, I would like to know today if it is on Thursday.

“We have one afternoon, evening, and entire day in a hotel close to Dundee for nothing if the decision is decided tomorrow evening.

Loss of time when working with the player is not possible. Therefore, I believe that making a wise choice now will benefit everyone.

It was a choice that anyone might have taken on Saturday when Dundee’s match against Motherwell just missed cancellation.

There was a weather warning for rain, and the situation hasn’t gotten much better despite it raining every day.

To put it mildly, it appeared as though the game would go regardless of what happened.

An earlier decision or the implementation of a contingency seemed to have no other explanation.

Plans for the Rangers Scottish Cup are now unclear.
It’s annoying not to be able to play the game, but it’s extremely inconvenient that the team has to play a few days before travelling to Hampden when they should have had a full week to prepare.

Rangers are understandably furious.

Hearts will still be a difficult challenge because they will be more rested and have had more time to prepare a specific strategy.

Rangers have suffered as a result of Dundee’s carelessness or incompetence.

Not very junior teams, amateur teams, or, naturally, their city rivals across the road, Dundee United.

As previously said, this is now Dundee’s fifth postponed game at Tannadice this season, and United hasn’t had one at all.

Although the SPFL claims that the club is currently facing disciplinary action, Rangers are not helped by this.

After the second or third postponement, when it became evident that Dundee was not providing a playing surface according to the league’s requirements, this action ought to have been taken.

The field will only get worse over the next few days due to another week of bad weather, and as we all know, there isn’t a backup plan. This game might determine the outcome of the post-split fixtures, and as usual, the supporters will be the ones who suffer.

In 2014, Barry Hearn was correct.

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