Rangers fury at Dundee over unplayable pitch

PHILIPPE CLEMENT last night hit out at the state of Dundee’s pitch after Rangers’ Scottish Premiership match against the Dark Blues was postponed an hour and a half before the noon kick-off.

Heavy overnight rain on Tayside prompted an initial 9.15am pitch inspection by local referee Craig Fordyce. This was followed by a further inspection by match referee Don Robertson at 10.15am, with the surface then deemed unplayable due to one waterlogged area on half-way and another in a penalty box. Dundee’s third home postponement this season means Celtic go into the international break with a one-point lead over Rangers at the top of the table. Rangers boss Clement said Robertson had made the right call but blasted Dundee over their pitch. ‘It’s a really strange thing,’ he said. ‘This will be the only pitch in all the leagues in Scotland where a game was postponed. That tells me that it has nothing to do with the weather. It rained all over Scotland and there were pitches in the lower leagues where they could play football. There, the ball was bouncing. But here, the ball was not bouncing. So clearly there is something wrong. ‘Also, there were spots on the pitch where they put lots of sand and there was no stability for the players. It is really dangerous for injuries.’ Dundee managing director John Nelms defended his club, saying: ‘We just ran out of time. If we had a 3pm match, the pitch would probably be playable. No one’s to blame. We’re doing our best. We put in new drains recently. We’ve done all of those sort of things.’