PREVIEW: Rangers v Clyde
The Sunday newspapers may have been full of stories regarding Barry Ferguson’s return to Ibrox with Clyde tomorrow, but The Bully Wee boss says the game is not about him – it is about the Clyde players and supporters.
Ferguson will take his team to the south side of Glasgow for the Petrofac Training Cup Second Round tie with Rangers and, despite all the pre-match hype about his return to his former club, he is fully focussed on the task in hand.
He told the official website: “It is not about me, it is a day for Clyde. My time at Rangers is past now. I had a wonderful time there – over 20 years – but this game is about the team and the supporters, that is the main thing for me.”
Long term injury absentee Iain Gray will miss the game, as will right back Fraser McGhee, who is due to return from a spell carrying out charity work in Africa only a number of hours before kick-off.
Ferguson had the team in for training yesterday and confirmed that other than Gray and McGhee he has a full squad to choose from for the trip to Ibrox, while he also explained his team will be going out to win the match:
“Everybody is fine for the game, there are no problems with anyone. We will go and try to win it – I am not into this ‘we will go and enjoy it’ stuff. If you go into a game not thinking you can win I don’t think there is any point in turning up, so we have got to try and be positive.”
Rangers edged past Hibs in the first round of the tournament, beating them 2-1 in extra time, but they have a number of injury concerns ahead of tomorrow night’s tie.
Kenny Miller was taken off in Friday’s match against Falkirk with a hamstring problem and is doubtful to recover in time for the game, while Rangers manager Ally McCoist also has concerns over Ian Black and Ricky Foster who both missed the Falkirk game through injury.
Striker Jon Daly and midfielder Arnold Peralta are definitely ruled out for The Gers.
McCoist was at the Excelsior Stadium to check up on Clyde in the 2-1 victory over Queen’s Park. He told www.rangers.co.uk:
“We went to Airdrie last Saturday and saw Clyde. They got a couple of goals late on and we know what to expect from them. They won’t surprise us because like most of the teams we’ve faced in the last couple of years, Barry will have them organised with bags and bags of enthusiasm.
“They’ll have a willingness to run about and it will be a massive game for a lot of their players so we’ll take all of that into account. Their squad has changed since we played them in the Third Division a couple of years back and they’ve a few new players.
“At the same time, they’ve a core there that knows about Rangers having faced us before so they’ll look to use that to their advantage.”
The match kicks-off at 7.35pm and tickets can be purchased between 11.30am-3pm tomorrow (Monday) from the Clyde Office at Broadwood. Prices are as follows:
- Adults £17
- Concessions £12
- Under-16 £5