Sunday 5 August 2012



Abuzz for Durie's return
Billy Dodds
Football columnist

IF anyone had told you a few years ago that East Fife would travel to Ibrox for a League Cup tie against a Rangers side from a division below them, you might have thought they had just landed on planet earth from the moon.
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It will be utterly surreal for Gordon Durie and I to return to the club in such circumstances for newco Rangers' first home match on Tuesday.

I have been helping Gordon and his assistant Gordon Chisholm at Bayview for months and I will be there as part of the team. It will be a special night for Jukey, because he was at Rangers in the really high times and won a lot more honours there than I did.

People around the club are joking about us being the big team in the tie, but in reality know we are serious underdogs.

Still, we are not going there just to turn up, we are going to try to win the game. We saw Rangers play Brechin but they obviously hadn't had a lot of football before then and the likes of Ian Black and Andy Little had only just signed.

I think Ally McCoist realises he is going to need a fair bit of experience to get through this season. Black and Dean Shiels are good captures and Craig Beattie will be a big one if they can get that done. But our boys are all positive about going to Ibrox and putting on a good show.

Our place has been absolutely buzzing, as if we were building up to a cup final. It is a real one-off for the players, although I suppose it might happen more regularly next season.

It says it all that we have had maybe a dozen boys at training the last few weeks but on Thursday a squad of 20 turned up. Everyone is getting off the treatment table or out of their sick beds to try to get involved in this game.

Of course we will get behind the ball and try to frustrate Rangers and maybe get the crowd on their backs, as happened with a couple of the team last week. We believe we can go there and give them a fright, especially with our results in this competition last year when we beat Aberdeen and Dunfermline.

Going to Ibrox will be a new experience for them and our boys can't wait. Jukey's son Scott, who plays right-back, went through the ranks at Rangers so it will be a big night for him.

We have also signed Collin Samuel and although he needs to get a wee bit fitter, he is capable of scoring goals against anybody.

Darren Smith is a solid player in midfield, and then there is Darren McCormack, who used to be at Hibs, at the back. They will all work their tails off for each other.

It will be very interesting to see what size of crowd turns up. I think there could be 30,000 or 40,000 as the fans get their first opportunity to show their support at a home game since liquidation.

People are saying this new Rangers side could win the Scottish Cup or League Cup but they are way short of the team they were last year. They have lost players so there is no doubt they are well behind Celtic.

They might be capable of beating Celtic in a one-off game, but I just feel that somewhere along the line, they could be knocked out of the big cups.

That means the pressure is really on for them to win the Ramdsens Cup and the Third Division. Could you imagine anyone saying that a couple of years ago?

I DON'T think Stewart Regan has handled the Rangers situation at all well, but he has obviously been in a difficult position, and had to deal with completely new circumstances. And for him to receive death threats is a disgrace.

I have had hassles myself, lots of people have. If you have a profile at all in this country you are either loathed or loved. Stewart might not be my favourite person. But no-one should have to go through what he has.

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