Dundee draw up Rangers Plan B and C as under-threat game gets another new date penciled in

Dundee were drawing up another raft of contingency plans on Monday night as fears mounted their midweek clash with Rangers might be washed out for a second time.

And Record Sport understands that includes a proposal to move the kick-off back for 24 hours until Thursday night – as well as the ‘worst case scenario’ of switching it to a neutral venue and playing behind closed doors. The Dens Park club were adamant on Monday that their patched up playing surface will be passed fit for purpose and that the visit from Philippe Clement’s side will go ahead as scheduled on Wednesday.

That’s despite four previous postponements and a warning from weather forecasters that frequent downpours are expected to hit Tayside over most of the next 48 hours including at the scheduled kick-off time. The heavy rain is not predicted to ease off until the early hours of Thursday morning.

It’s understood Dundee put a similar emergency plan in place to move their match with Motherwell back by a day had their heavily sanded playing surface failed a 1pm pitch inspection on Saturday. Shortly after arriving at the Scot Foam Stadium, Fir Park boss Stuart Kettlewell branded specific areas of the pitch ‘unplayable’ and insisted they endangered the health and safety of players.

But, despite Kettlewell’s concerns, match ref David Dickinson eventually gave the game the go-ahead after conducting a second inspection. Now it’s Rangers’ turn to return to the City of Discovery to play their game in hand over title rivals Celtic having been forced to abort their last trip there in March when the lunchtime game was called-off at the 11th hour.

Clement agreed with that decision after arriving at the ground but insisted Dundee had not raised any kind of early alarm to warn Rangers the game was in danger. A win for Rangers would see Clement and his players open up a two point lead at the top of the table with just one more game to go, away to Ross County on Sunday, before the top flight split.

Dundee boss Tony Docherty expects the game to go ahead, with protective covers attempting to hold off the forecasted heavy rain. Docherty said: “They are all working on the pitch. I am preparing my team for the game and I know it is on. “Whatever measures that need to be taken on are being taken to make sure the game is on.”

Docherty refused to get embroiled in a war of words with Kettlewell, insisting his entire focus is on trying to get a result against Philippe Clement’s title chasers. Docherty said: “I am not qualified to talk about pitches.

“I am qualified as a football manager to talk about players, teams and formations and that is all I am doing just now. We train and get ready for the game. We get ready for the opponents but as far as we are concerned we have a game on Wednesday and we are preparing for that.”