Dundee managing director John Nelms has offered up alternative dates if Wednesday night’s home game against Rangers is again defeated by a waterlogged pitch.
The title-chasing Light Blues return to Tayside again for a rescheduled cinch Premiership clash which was contentiously called off 90 minutes before kick-off last month – a fourth call-off at the Scot Foam Stadium this season.
Dundee’s home match against Motherwell on Saturday needed two pitch inspections to get the go-ahead, with the Fir Park club stating before their 3-2 comeback win: “We are deeply concerned for the welfare of all players ahead of this match, despite the referee assuring that he is happy that this won’t be an issue.”
Gers boss Philippe Clement spoke of a “crazy situation” as he prepared his squad to travel north on Tuesday afternoon.
Nelms told Sky Sports that once again protective covers are on the pitch but noted that April 16 or 17 could be used if plans do not go as desired.
“We’re as confident as we can be,” he said. “We’ve 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. But the timing of the rain is always an issue.
“We’ve done everything we can to get the water draining out of the pitch. We did that before Saturday’s game, once again it was a timing issue.
“We got that game on. The pitch didn’t look pretty but it played well. It was safe underfoot, the ball rolled and bounced the way it is supposed to.
“It’s very much the same as what we are doing today. The covers are on. We have heavier covers over the areas of the pitch that need to be covered more. We’ll see what happens in the next 24 hours.
“The rest of the pitch deals with the weather quite well. There are three areas that struggle and it’s because of a strada-layer we have to poke through, which we have done. Keeping the water off those areas as long as we can is what is key.
“We don’t play the split until the 27th so we’ll have the 16th and 17th next week. It is 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 why we do this. It’s an entertainment business. That’s the foremost point of this thing.
“Right now the game is on and if the game is not on, we’ll have a contingency plan that will be put forward to us.”
Lyall Cameron believes if the pitch does offer an advantage, it will be to the home team.
The 21-year-old midfielder told DeeTV: “It wasn’t ideal (on Saturday) but everyone knows that.
“It is clear that the pitch isn’t good enough for this level of football but at the same time it doesn’t do Rangers any favours.
“At the same time we have good enough players who would prefer to play on a better pitch so it doesn’t totally suit us, but it suits them a wee bit less.”
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