Rangers withdraw postponement request for St Mirren match
Rangers have withdrawn their request to postpone their William Hill Premiership fixture away to St Mirren on August 24.
The Ibrox club had indicated they would take advantage of the opportunity to rearrange the game against the Saints if they reached the Champions League play-off.
The Light Blues take a 3-0 lead from the first leg of their third qualifier into the return game in the Czech Republic on Tuesday night, where the winners will face either Club Brugge or Red Bull Salzburg.
However, at his pre-match media conference on Monday, boss Martin said: "No decision has been made either way. I think we were told that the option would be there. I think the plan has always been to play the game, unless... Depending on what happened on the Tuesday night, if we get through this and all that stuff. So it's been flexible."
The notion of postponing the Buddies fixture before such a hugely important play-off game looked sensible before the Gers' home match against Dundee on Saturday but it was questioned following the 1-1 draw which left the Light Blues with just two points from six.
The result, plus a red card for Nasser Djiga, meant Celtic, if they had beaten Livingston on August 23, could have moved 10 points clear of their Old Firm rivals on August 31 when they travelled to Rangers, who would have been missing the centre-back through suspension if the St Mirren game was postponed.
An SPFL statement released just three hours before the kick-off in the Czech Republic read: "Following further discussions with Rangers, St Mirren, and relevant stakeholders, we can confirm that Rangers have withdrawn their request to postpone their William Hill Premiership Round 3 match against St Mirren if they reach the play-off round of the Champions League.
"The match will now take place as originally planned on Sunday August 24, kick-off 12 noon, with the game to be shown live on Sky Sports."
--
Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.