After months of off field heartache including going into administration, being deducted ten points, players taking pay cuts, the old company going down the road liquidation, players quitting, being refused entry into the first and second tier of Scottish Football, gaining entry to the third tier and then an anxious wait for an SFA license, Rangers are finally ready to play football in an historic Ramsden Cup game against Brechin City.
Rangers are about to embark on a new chapter of their history as a lower league team. They will play outside the top tier for the first time in their history, and today they take part in their first ever Scottish League Challenge Cup game, better known as the Ramsden Cup for sponsorship reasons.
Rangers are swapping places with Dundee FC in this competition and therefore took on Dundee’s tie away to Brechin City of the second division. This will also be one of Brechin’s biggest every occasions.
We face the unusual position of a lower league team being the favourite to win the game but that’s the reality with Rangers being a third division team and Brechin being second division.
Rangers WILL be favourites but that doesn’t mean to say that is how it will pan out. Rangers will be fielding a lot of youngsters this season and remember we have not played any pre-season friendlies, this will not be easy.
The game will be live on BBC Alba with a five past three kick-off. For those of you who have not came across this channel before, you can find it on channel 168 on Sky, channel 188 on virgin media (Scotland only) and channel 8 on freeview (again, Scotland only). You may also get it on bbc iplayer, online and freesat.
The game takes place at Glebe Park, a 3,690 capacity stadium with 1,519 seats.
Brechin City Team News:
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Player to watch: .
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Rangers Team News:
Rangers could field new signings Ian Black and Andy Little as trialists. They were not registered on time but can play as trialists under SFL rules.
The rest of the team could be made up of a mixture of youth and experience. Expect the likes of Lee McCulloch, Neil Alexander and Kirk Broadfoot to feature along with experienced younger players like Ross Perry, Darren Cole and Kyle Hutton along with emerging youngsters Barry MacKay and Lewis McLeod to feature.
Player to watch: Lee McCulloch
The Rangers captain will be so important this season.