FOOTBALL managers and players tend to view artificial pitches with the same sort of suspicion as a cartoon mouse does a large chunk of cheese that has suddenly materialised outside its hole in the skirting board.

Installing plastic surfaces has become an increasingly popular revenue generator for clubs - pitches are easier to maintain and can be used on a daily basis without any detrimental effect - but the enthusiasm with which chairmen and directors have welcomed their arrival has not been shared inside the dressing room.

Players don't like them. Managers aren't all that keen either. James McFadden went as far as to say recently he would not sign for any club who played on them, thus proving that (currently unemployed) beggars can be choosers. Ian Black, the Rangers midfielder, described the one used by Alloa Athletic at their recently-renamed Indodrill Stadium as a "shambles". He and his side drew 1-1 on it on Saturday and play on another this evening when they face Falkirk in the League Cup. "As artificial surfaces go that I'm not keen on, this is the best one," said Ally McCoist, damning the Falkirk Stadium with the faintest of praise.

Rangers have an artificial pitch at their Murray Park training complex but, despite playing on plastic in consecutive games, McCoist has no plans to use it by way of preparation. A suggestion that teams should be given the opportunity to try out an opposition surface before a competitive match was acknowledged as a good one by the Rangers manager but not one he would ever take up. When it comes to plastic, McCoist believes the less time spent on it the better.

It will come into his thoughts when he names his team this evening. McCoist is fortunate in that regard that his squad is bigger than most, and he will give those who do not enjoy playing on artificial surfaces the night off.

"Clearly in our team there are boys who are less comfortable on those surfaces than others," he said. "Alloa, Queen of the South and Falkirk have them but you don't get any two the same. They are different quality, the fabric is different, so you have to take into account the different levels of surface when you are picking the team. But that goes with the territory. I'm not a great fan of them but I do understand the economics of some of the clubs requiring them.

"I just think - rightly or wrongly - there is a greater opportunity for injuries. I don't like training on them either. I cut down any time on them at all. I can understand people saying we should go and practise on the surface we're going to be playing on. But my argument against it would be you continue to run the risk of injury."

Of those who end up featuring this evening, McCoist wants them to get any negative thoughts about the surface out of their heads. "The bottom line is they might not like the surface but it's the same for both teams," he said. "Regardless of whether the home team play on it every second week - which they do - there are no excuses."

Rangers, despite currently competing in the second tier of Scottish football, are ranked third favourites by most bookmakers to win the League Cup and neither Black nor McCoist were going to disabuse any supporter thinking of lumping on their team at 10/1. Should they progress beyond Falkirk, a team they struggled to see off just a few weeks ago, they will take their place in the draw for the quarter-finals.

"I think we are a stronger squad and a stronger team so, naturally, I'd think we are better placed than the previous couple of seasons to put a challenge in for one of the trophies," admitted McCoist, who will be without the injured Lewis Macleod, Nicky Clark, Cammy Bell and Kenny Miller. "The [cup] result last week against Inverness [Caledonian Thistle] would indicate that in a one-off game we can compete with the best teams in the country.

"Our hopes of winning a cup this year would be the same as the likes of Inverness, Dundee and Dundee United. That's where I think we are."

Black was similarly optimistic. "We have got a good squad, there is a good bit of confidence and it is a big squad so there are a lot of players that can chip in if there are injuries," he added. "We are confident of going far in all the cups."