JIM GOODWIN has revealed Dundee United’s ground staff will be working round the clock to get Saturday’s clash with Hearts on.
The Tannadice pitch has been battered by rain for the past fortnight, leading to last weekend’s game against St Mirren going off.
United’s Scottish Cup tie with Ayr United also had to pass a late inspection because of a sodden patch.
Weather forecasters are predicting another wet week on Tayside in the run-up to the Premiership leaders’ visit on Saturday night.
But United are determined to do everything they can to make sure the live telly clash beats the conditions.
Should the game not go ahead, it could offer Rangers and Celtic the chance to further cut the gap to Hearts at the top of the table.
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The Glasgow clubs are both in action on Sunday, with Celtic hosting Falkirk and Rangers away to Hibernian.
Goodwin said: “The ground staff and everybody at Tannadice is working day and night to try and make sure the game goes ahead against Hearts.
“We just hope and pray it does.
“We are in the lap of the Gods with the weather the way it is.
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“The forecast doesn’t look too great so we will need to wait and see what happens.
“We hope the game goes on because we can’t afford for another one to be cancelled.
“You don’t want a backlog of games to catch-up on.”
United called an early inspection for the Buddies clash so Goodwin knew the game was off by 10am.
That allowed him to reschedule a training session at their St Andrews base to keep his players ticking over.
He revealed: “We ended up training.
“We reported to St Andrews for 12 and we managed to get a game in between the squads, so it was a good day.
“The boys worked hard and it was really worthwhile.
“The boys were disappointed the game was off but what can we do?
“The conditions were far from ideal but I was happy to get a good session in and the game, knowing the boys trained well.”
Goodwin has already signed Irish winger Neil Farrugia in this window and hopes to also add a new goalkeeper to his squad.
So spent yesterday locked in transfer discussions with the club’s recruitment team.
He said: “We never intended on being overly busy in this window.
“We were pleased to get Neil Farrugia done and I have spoken about bringing in another goalkeeper because we only have two at the moment.
“I definitely hope to have a goalkeeper in before the deadline.
“I think that would be a sensible thing to do.
“If anything else happens, going the other way, we will try to replace them.”
United defender Will Ferry has been targeted by MLS side Vancouver as well as other sides, but as things stand there has been no movement.
Goodwin said: “I have not heard any more over the last week.
“There has been interest from the UK and other markets that open up toward the end of the month.
“We will need to wait and see what happens.
“We’ve made a couple of pre-contract offers so hopefully between now and the end of the window we can get a couple of these done.”
Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page