Dundee United’s last visit to Parkhead saw them swept aside by title-chasing Celtic, but manager Peter Houston will be looking a bit further back for inspiration ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Glasgow’s east end.
The Tannadice boss, who put his players through a gym training session on Thursday after their St Andrews training base succumbed to torrential rain, said, “You need to be at your best to get something from Parkhead.
“They gave us a wee tanking, 4-0, post-split last season, so we’ll need to defend better from that.”
He added, “However, earlier in the season Sean Dillon scored a last-minute goal with a header to give us a draw there back in November.
“We’ll go there and try to get a positive result.”
The stand-out result of United’s season so far has been the 1-0 win at Tynecastle, and Houston believes his new look side are well equipped to succeed on the road.
He said, “We’ve got five points out of nine so far this season and the highlight is obvious an excellent win away to Hearts.
“I still say that I don’t think many teams will win at Tynecastle this season and stand by that.
“We like to work on our organisational skills when we’re away from home and it’s paid dividends.”
He added, “I was very pleased with our defensive qualities over in Poland when we limited Slask Wroclaw to precious few chances in the Europa League.
“In the end, it was a fluke of a goal which beat us which spoke volumes about how we went about our business.”‘You never get an easy game#Houston said, “We’ll set up to be hard to beat at Parkhead but, at the same time, it’s not in my nature to set out for a 0-0 draw right from the start.
“I’ve never set out any Dundee United side to steal or snatch a draw. We go and try to win any game. You never get an easy game going to Celtic Park.”
Houston joked with Celtic star Scott Brown that he wouldn’t be fit in time to face his United side after hobbling off while on Scotland duty in midweek.
But he fully expects the Hoops skipper to recover from the ankle knock he picked up against Denmark to make his first SPL appearance of the season.
Houston, who doubles up as Craig Levein’s assistant at Scotland, has admired Brown’s work ethic for both club and country.
He said, “Scotty is a big player for Celtic and Scotland.
“I was disappointed to see him go off against Denmark at Hampden but I think he’ll be alright.”
United central defender Garry Kenneth will be available after shaking off a toe injury he picked up against St Mirren last week, while Scott Severin begins his recovery from surgery on his broken leg.
Houston said, “Apart from Seve, we’ve no further injuries from last weekend’s game against St Mirren which can only be good.”
Gary Mackay-Steven is “touch and go”, while Gavin Gunning has still not sorted out a settlement package with Blackburn Rovers.