ALL EYES will be on Montrose tomorrow as the town gets set to welcome Rangers to Links Park in front of a worldwide TV audience.
The club has spent heavily on safety improvements to increase the ground capacity from 3,300 to 4,934 for the visitors’ first visit to Links Park on league duty.
All tickets for the match have now been sold which will boost the Gable Endies finances despite the outlay on new crush barriers, fencing and refurbishment.
ESPN will also be showing the match live, with the production team arriving today to put the final touches in place ahead of the 12.30pm kick-off.
It is the second visit by the Old Firm to Angus in as many days after Arbroath’s Scottish Cup tie against Celtic saw the Red Lichties go down bravely by a single goal.
Montrose are put at 9-1 by the bookies to pull off a shock against the league leaders but chairman Derek Sim said he is confident of a good performance.
He told The Courier: “I think when you go into any game against Rangers you know it’s going to be a stiff challenge but at the same time I don’t think any player goes into a game not actually thinking they are going to win.
“We only need to look at the result earlier this week between Bradford and Arsenal to see that shocks can happen.
“The team has been on a good run and we have been unbeaten in six games.
“That breeds confidence and there is no reason to suggest we can’t give Rangers a tough game.”
Montrose are fourth in the league and sit five points behind Rangers, who are top with two games in hand.
Mr Sim said getting the ground ready for the visit has been hectic and he is confident the match will beat the weather.
He said: “We have an artificial pitch and the weather forecast towards the end of last week did not look good but that has changed.
“We have been salting the pitch and it’s going to be in perfect condition.
“Everything is looking good at the current time and there is no reason why the game shouldn’t go ahead. Things have been fairly hectic in the build-up to the match.
“Certainly over the past few weeks there were a number of things raised by the safety team in terms of the upgrading of parts of the ground. This included exit gates and installing new crush barriers and fencing in addition to one or two other areas of the ground which required refurbishment.
“That has all been completed and the contractors we have used have been great and any additional certificates that were required have been completed well in time.
“From a ground point of view we are looking forward to a capacity crowd at Links Park for the first time in a few years.”
Mr Sim said the SFL clubs previously reached agreement as to how the TV money from Rangers games would be shared out amongst them.
He added: “The agreement is certainly not as lucrative as a Scottish Cup match but obviously playing Rangers has certainly assisted the club on this occasion.
“We’re looking forward to Montrose being on television and the town getting a boost from everyone visiting on Saturday.”