Charlie Mulgrew insists Dundee United won’t use their Covid-disrupted week as an excuse for failing to compete with Rangers.
United will take a depleted squad with them to Glasgow on Saturday after reporting positive Covid cases amongst their playing staff earlier in the week.
That led to fears United would be unable to fulfil the fixture but the Tannadice club are convinced they have managed to control when could have been a serious Covid outbreak.
Training the club’s St Andrews base was restricted as all players underwent tests.
But Mulgrew insists they WILL be ready for Rangers.
“It would be easy for us to look at negatives and try to make excuses,” said Mulgrew.
“But we’re trying to look towards the game and do everything we can to be best prepared.
“The biggest disruption has probably been more people missing training on different days than normal.
“But we’ve still got a lot of good training in – maybe slightly less tactical work if you are being picky.
“It is an isolated game that will take care of itself.
“But it is one we want to put a performance in to get a result.
“Teams have gone there and struggled but we need to look what we can bring to the game to cause them problems.”
Charlie Mulgrew: Football needs fans
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Just shy of 3000 Dundee United fans made a right old din today, too
Worked at Ibrox, Stark's Park and McDiarmid in the last couple of weeks and, after 18 months of covering silent, soulless football, this stuff still isn't getting old ❤⚽️ https://t.co/7PduCgFsVb pic.twitter.com/LBV7oOAUs3
— Alan Temple (@alanftemple) August 22, 2021
Meanwhile, Mulgrew has reiterated boss Tam Courts’ calls not to lock fans out of football.
Supporters missed 15 months of football at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
And fears are growing that restrictions over crowd numbers could come into force as the Omicron variant spreads.
“Football is nothing without the fans,” said Mulgrew. “You’ve heard that a million times but that is truly how we feel.
“Everyone wants the supporters in the stadium. The last thing we want is to go back to having no fans.
“We are doing all the protocols and everything we can to continue to have fans and to move forward with the proper way football should be played.
“They had a massive input in the last game with Rangers.
“We did our bit to get the fans onside and they played a huge part in making us play well.
“Fans are a massive part of every game in the world of football so we want to have them there.”