Lee McCulloch to continue at centre-back as injuries force Ally McCoist to shuffle

Ibrox boss Ally McCoist would prefer to rest some players for the match on the astroturf pitch, but, with as many as eight players sidelined, has little choice but to field his strongest possible team.

“It’s depleted. We’re obviously struggling in defensive areas, the centre-backs are out. But we managed to get by last weekend,” said McCoist, whose side will be looking to build on their first away win at Clyde last month, as well as extend their lead at the top of the Third Division table.

McCoist also commented on proposals this week from the 30 Scottish Football League clubs to reform Scottish football on a three-tier structure of 16, 10 and 16 teams for the 2014-15 season.

“The majority of people recognise that something has to be done to help the Scottish game in moving forward and I certainly feel that the SFL proposal is certainly worth looking at,” McCoist said.

He added: “SFL, SPL and SFA, that’s an awful lot of bodies — I don’t think we’re a big enough nation to require that. If we had one body running the football side of things, I’m all for that.”

Shire, second from bottom on nine points, will recall skipper Kevin Turner, who sat out Tuesday’s win over Queen’s Park.