Derek McInnes doesn’t believe it would be a major upset if Kilmarnock eliminate Celtic from the Scottish Cup today.
The Killie boss acknowledged his side couldn’t have been handed a more formidable draw than an away fourth-round tie against the holders and runaway Premiership leaders.
However, McInnes led former club Aberdeen to a 2-1 fifth-round win over Neil Lennon’s Celtic in 2014, and is adamant that his Killie side — who won twice at home to the Celts — and drew away to Brendan Rodgers’ team last season — are perfectly capable of pulling off a similar result.
‘We’re a Premier League club, we were the fourth-best team in Scotland last season,’ said McInnes. ‘Obviously, we’ve still got work to do to try and be something similar this season, and I know we’ve got some injuries, but a lot of the same players who will play on Saturday played a big part in these victories (last season).
‘I remember my first year at Aberdeen, we went to Celtic Park in the Scottish Cup and beat a strongly-fancied Celtic team as well.
‘It wouldn’t be the biggest shock in the world. It would be a shock, there’s no doubt about it and I’m sure you guys (in the media) would say that, but it wouldn’t be the biggest shock if we can go there and pull off a victory.
Derek McInnes is confident his players can get a result against Celtic this weekend
Nicolas Kuhn got on the scoresheet in a 2-0 win for Celtic when the sides met in November
Calvin Ramsay could make his Kilmarnock debut after arriving on loan from Liverpool
‘We go there confident, we’ve been far better with our defensive work recently and that’s going to be tested on Saturday.’
Although Kilmarnock are currently ninth in the Premiership, McInnes takes heart from the spirited display his team produced when they were deemed unlucky to go down 2-0 to Celtic at Rugby Park last November.
‘We got dealt such a tough hand when the draw was made,’ he said. ‘You always want a home tie, but you certainly don’t want an away tie at Celtic Park.
‘By the same token, it’s an exciting tie for the players to have a go at it. We created so many chances against them here and probably should have won that game.
‘Going to Celtic Park, it’s always a wee bit more of a challenge for clubs like ourselves, but it’s a cup tie.’
McInnes, who could hand a debut to on-loan Liverpool right-back Calvin Ramsay, added: ‘We’ll try and have a wrestle with them and make it the type of game we want it to be. We’ll try to stay in the game and try to be concentrated.’
