Philippe Clement shares emotional Rangers fan story of 'crying' amid Dundee fiasco he reckons paints one bleak image

Rangers manager Philippe Clement insists supporters are being left in limbo over the continued uncertainty surrounding where their delayed Scottish Premiership meeting with Dundee will take place.

The Belgian boss revealed he was met by a devastated father and son who had travelled up from Wales for a second time to take in Wednesday’s postponed clash at Dens Park at the team hotel.

Heavy rainfall in the Tayside area forced match referee Don Robertson to call-off the fixture due to a waterlogged pitch shortly after staging a 3.30pm inspection, leaving travelling away fans frustrated and angered by the latest postponement having forked out a significant sum of money to attend the game.

And it was the look of disappointment on the young child’s face that left Clement extremely downbeat as he sympathised with travelling fans. As things stand, Dundee remain uncertain whether they will be able to host the game at next week’s rearranged date of Wednesday, April 17th. It is believed talks with other top-flight clubs have frantically taken place to stage the match if the Dens Park playing surface is deemed unplayable again.

GlasgowWorld understands St Johnstone’s McDiarmid Park is being looked at as a potential venue, while Easter Road and Tynecastle will also come under consideration, with both clubs said to have declined the SPFL’s offer to play the game last midweek.

Speaking at his media conference on Thursday to preview Sunday’s league match with Ross County, Clement said: “We have a very busy schedule. You are preparing everything, training, preparations. The guys almost don’t have any free days. They will have two free days off this month. I had to take one off because we had to change our programme.

“We were in the hotel yesterday, I saw a father with a small boy. It was the second time that they’d travelled from Wales to St Andrews for the boy to see a Rangers game and two times the game has been cancelled, The boy is six or seven years old and was crying, so there’s a lot of things around that also.

“Fans come from Wales, England, Northern Ireland, all over. The first time, a few weeks ago, and now again the same situation. This is really bad for the image of football in Scotland and everybody needs to realise that. It needs to be avoided, so it’s important now to take the right decisions to ensure this can’t happen any more.”

The youngster in question is called Ollie Fish and his dad Thomas stated on social media he was delighted to have been mentioned by Clement - even if his son was adamant he didn’t get too upset.

He wrote on X/Twitter: “Mention off the gaffer. Though Ollie is fuming cos he didn’t cry. Just a side note in the story of winning the treble.”

The pair had set off for a second time on the mammoth all-expenses paid overnight trip to the City of Discovery in order to arrive on time for the rescheduled clash, having posted a series of photos including with first-team stars Rabbi Matondo and Fabio Silva outside the stadium on their previous visit.