Pre-Celtic: Derek McInnes

Kilmarnock make the trip to Glasgow this Saturday to face Celtic, looking to build momentum after last weekend’s impressive 2-0 win over Motherwell.

Ahead of the match, manager Derek McInnes provided an update on his squad and shared his thoughts on facing Celtic whilst speaking to the media.

Squad News

McInnes confirmed that Rory McKenzie is expected to miss the trip to Celtic Park after picking up a thigh injury in the win over Motherwell.

“Rory’s probably going to miss Saturday’s game. He’s got a slight tear in his thigh. Thankfully, it’s not as bad as we’d thought. Initially, after the game last Saturday, we were fearing the worst with it,” McInnes explained.
“We’ve been treating it as a Grade 1 tear, which is normally 10 to 16 days, so hopefully he’ll just miss the one game, which has been a bit of a godsend for us. We’re really pleased with Rory, how he played last week. It was his first proper game in a while, and he can be pleased. It was a strong team performance – very unfussy and very professional.”

There was more positive news regarding Lewis Mayo, who was forced off against Motherwell.

“Lewis came off, he’s not trained with the squad this week, he’s done a lot of work with the physio, so we’re just trying to limit the impact on his knee. But we’re hoping he’s fine for the weekend. He’s had a good couple of days and looks like he’ll be OK, though he’s got another 48 hours to go.”

Building on Motherwell Performance

Kilmarnock’s disciplined and confident display at Rugby Park earned all three points last Saturday, and McInnes is hoping to see the same levels again – albeit acknowledging the tougher task ahead.

“Obviously, some games are more difficult than others, and there’s no tougher game than going to Celtic Park. We’ve just got to try and do a lot of what we feel we have to do when we go there. We expect a tough game, but equally we need to try and make it difficult for them.”

He added:

“Saturday will be a totally different game. I thought we played in the right areas against Motherwell, we dominated a lot of the game – even with 11 men I thought we were doing the most attacking. But Celtic average 74% possession in the league – they dominate the ball, so it’s a different type of game.”

Despite that, the manager is backing his team to bring the qualities that have made them so competitive.

“We still need to be a bit more us – and last Saturday, we were. We played forward, we carried a goal threat, we were industrious, we worked hard, we were really compact. We gave up very few opportunities, and we’re going to have our work cut out to make good decisions and defend properly on Saturday. But hopefully we can take confidence from that result.”

Keeping Belief as the Split Approaches

With the league table as tight as it’s been in recent memory, McInnes believes his squad’s experience and resilience will be key in the closing stages of the campaign.

“It’s been well documented for months how tight the league is. It starts to look even tighter when you run out of games, so it’s important to maximise every opportunity. I think that will bode well for the upcoming weeks.
“I’ve worked with these boys a long time, and if we can get our key players giving us that influence, we normally deal with what we need to deal with.”

Celtic Threat

Despite Celtic’s surprise defeat to St Johnstone last weekend, McInnes insists there are no illusions about the scale of the task at hand.

“I don’t think there’s too many weaknesses in this Celtic side. It was a bad day for them and a good day for St Johnstone. But what we’ve got to expect now is a tough game. Celtic are normally at the top of the league for a reason. That result will have annoyed their manager – so we have to expect a reaction.
“But equally, I want us to be a tough opponent.”

Supporters making the journey to Celtic Park are reminded that Saturday’s match kicks off at 12.30pm.