Rangers offer support to help East Kilbride prepare for pyramid play-off final

Rangers have come to East Kilbride's aid to help them prepare for the pyramid play-off final.

Kilby were handed a bye to the final last week when Highland League champions Buckie Thistle - who played Celtic in the Scottish Cup earlier this season - were booted out of the play-offs after failing to achieve their Bronze Licensing Award in time to compete against the Lowland League winners on April 27.

And now the Ibrox side have offered up their B team as opponents for Kilby to help them warm-up for a crack at either Clyde or Stranraer of League Two in the final, which will be played over two legs on May 11 and 18. The sides will meet at the Rangers Training Centre on Thursday night and it will give Kilby a challenging run out ahead of the biggest game in the club's history.

Boss Mick Kennedy said: "It is difficult to arrange a friendly last minute but Rangers were kind enough to contact us and offer to play us, so it will be a good test for the boys. We are playing Rangers B at Murray Park on Thursday night and then we will train Saturday morning.

"I wanted to keep the Saturday afternoons free to give us a chance to look at the two teams we could face. We looked at Clyde at the weekend there and we'll go and look at Stranraer this weekend, then we can start preparing for the play-offs.

"We have trained quite intensely so far, but the boys don't need any more motivation than having two games to take the club into the professional leagues for the first time."

The battle to avoid facing East Kilbride is going down to the wire with Stranraer currently bottom and two points behind Clyde heading into Saturday's final round of matches, at home to Stenhousemuir and away to Elgin City, respectively.

And Kennedy admits it is too