Rangers have been drawn against Falkirk in the last 16 of the league cup, not a long trip but unfortunately it’s on another artificial surface on the weekend after we play Benfica at Ibrox.
Celtic were drawn at home to Ross County, another chink in the tin foil hat wearing brigade’s conspiracy theory that the Light Blues get favourable draws, there are no really obvious “big ties” in a pretty dour draw, as reported by BBC Sport.
The Falkirk Stadium, as it is imaginatively known, is an improvement in quality on Brockville in terms of cleanliness and for the quality of facilities, however, it is unlikely to ever match the old ground in terms of atmosphere – unfortunately, due to the current tier level of the central belt, the chances of having any fans at all is almost nil.
The Bairns are still languishing in League 1 after being one of the biggest victims of the great reconstruction stitch-up, sitting just a point behind Raith Rovers when the league was declared after 28 games, to make matters worse they weren’t even given the opportunity of promotion through the play-off system – they were one of a few teams to genuinely back Rangers calls for change in Scottish football.
It should be a relatively straight forward tie with even a back-up team likely to be loaded with internationals, players like Kemar Roofe and Borna Barisic, who have had problems on artificial surfaces before, and who will be favourites to feature against Benfica, should be able to sit this one out.
The draw could have been a lot worse and after a tough Europa League tie it will give the gaffer a chance to start players like Calvin Bassey, Cedric Itten, Ianis Hagi and Bongani Zungu who maybe haven’t seen as much game time recently, and more importantly, still having the quality to progress to the next round and ultimately begin to make amends for the daylight robbery of last year’s final.