Dunfermline boss Jim McIntyre admits the Pars will be facing a Celtic side whose confidence is ”sky high” when they are first-footed by the new SPL leaders.
The Hoops made it nine in a row on Wednesday night when they grabbed the latest in their long line of league wins, beating Rangers 1-0 at Celtic Park.
They now lead the Light Blues by two points having been behind by 15 as recently as November and McIntyre was quick to acknowledge that achievement.
It will be bottom-versus-top on Monday when the Pars host Neil Lennon’s men a daunting prospect for a team yet to record a home success all season.
McIntyre insisted the Fifers will put up a fight, though, and recalled how a late goal the last time the sides met had Celtic worried.
After Andy Barrowman made it 2-1 in Glasgow on November 23, Hoops goalie Fraser Forster was booked for time-wasting as the Pars pushed for an equaliser.
”Celtic are on a fantastic run and you have to credit them for that,” said McIntyre. ”It is never easy to win that many games in the Premier League and their confidence will be sky high.
”So we know we are going to be in for a very tough game. But it has been proven before that you can get results against the Old Firm, although you need your goalkeeper to have an outstanding game and have everybody playing to their maximum.
”You also need a bit of luck as you will have to weather a lot of pressure and attempts at your goal.
”We weathered an early storm in our last game against Celtic and when we scored in the second half their fans got a bit edgy.
”Any time you play the Old Firm, you are not expected to get a result but it can happen and we have to have belief. We owe it to our fans to give it everything we have.”
McIntyre insisted the Pars would be more than happy to go on a rather more modest run of their own, adding: ”We don’t look at the likes of Celtic because they are on a different level from us but we do look at the likes of Aberdeen, who have shown that two or three good results in a row can change the picture dramatically.”
There was good news regarding Joe Cardle, who trained on Thursday after recovering from illness.
Martin Hardie has not returned to the training park yet, while Kevin Rutkiewicz is making progress but still a bit away from a comeback.
Goalie Paul Gallacher still cannot raise his arm properly and that is delaying a prognosis on his shoulder injury.
McIntyre revealed that on-loan full-back Jason Thomson has been allowed to return to Hearts.
”That’s his loan period over and we won’t be renewing it,” he said.
Photo by Kirk O’Rourke/PA