Motherwell and Rangers meet on league duty at Hampden on Saturday with early season points up for grabs.
While Motherwell prepared for this second game in the league campaign with a heavy loss in a training match at Goodison, Rangers were lifted by a last kick equaliser in Poland against Dynamo Kyiv.
That the bookies have Stuart Kettlewell’s side as 14/1 outsiders is no surprise. His match day squad may pick itself such is the length of the injury list. Yet Motherwell supporters will point to the last meeting of the teams for some encouragement.
The long winless record at Ibrox was reset in March when Dan Casey and Theo Bair delivered a long awaited victory. And when the pair last met at Hampden Louis Moult scored twice to triumph in the Betfred Cup semi-final.
Zach Robinson and Moses Ebiye may share a lone striking role on the big pitch and we may see a second appearance of Apostolos Stamatelopoulos.
Cyriel Dessers prevented a Champions League loss with the last kick of the ball on Tuesday and he is likely to be one of several who will test Aston Oxborough. The big ‘keeper has performed well in his early season matches but he will face a tough test on Saturday. His former colleague Liam Kelly will be on the opposition bench.
Many column inches have been written about the latest rebuild of Philip Clement’s squad but he has at his disposal enough to justify the odds-on favourite tag.
The away support will give the Steelmen lots of encouragement but not many will risk their cash on the long odds. A 2-0 defeat may be on the cards.