RANGERS have abandoned their plans to bring in a new goalkeeper to bolster that position in light of the long-term injury that has ruled out French internationalist Lionel Charbonnier.
Manager Dick Advocaat has made soundings for a few replacements, most notably German Andreas Kopke, who reputedly wanted too much money even for Scotland's richest club to contemplate, but has decided to leave things as they are.
That is a major vote of confidence for Finnish internationalist Antti Niemi, who, despite losing five goals in the derby match with Celtic, has done enough to show that he is a top-class keeper in Charbonnier's absence, which began when he was carried off during the UEFA Cup tie with Bayer Leverkusen at Ibrox.
Advocaat, who is ever-reluctant to offer praise for individuals, did manage to concede that the Finn ''has done a good job'' and also made the point that his fellow countryman, Theo Snelders, who is fit after injury, was available again as further back-up.
Snelders, the former Aberdeen keeper, who has appeared to be content to stay at Ibrox as a supporting act, first to Andy Goram and then to Charbonnier, followed by Niemi, is the only other experienced keeper at the club.
He now becomes the back-up for Niemi in the squad that will travel to Italy for the second leg of the UEFA Cup tie with Parma on Tuesday.
Snelders' last appearance for the top side was almost a year ago, on December 27, against Dundee United at Ibrox. ''He has been injured,'' said Advocat, ''but he is all right now.''
Seventeen-year-old Mark Brown, the only other keeper on the Ibrox staff, will be on the bench as one of the compulsory Premier League young substitutes against Dunfermline at Ibrox this afternoon.
Rangers have also had to rule out Jonatan Johansson, Niemi's fellow Finn, for the game in Italy, which is a blow, considering that he has been a regular scorer in their European jaunts this season.
''Maybe he came back too quickly against Parma in the first game,'' said Advocaat.
Gabriel Amato, the Argentinian who came on in the second half of that first leg and did very well, is also included in the travelling party. However, that was bound to be so with the ineligibility of French striker Stephane Guivarc'h.
Meanwhile, Advocaat insists that the collection of three points against Dunfermline today at Ibrox is the only objective that is concerning him.
''We will think about Parma after that game is over,'' he said.
q Match preview - Page 3
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article