DEREK McINNES has reminded his players to forget Celtic’s agenda when they visit Pittodrie tomorrow and to concentrate on the need to grab the points which will aid their aim to secure European football for the fifth successive season.
The Aberdeen manager is perfectly aware Celtic intend to use the match venue as the stage on which they will celebrate an eighth Premiership title in a row and he believes one of the ways to avoid that is for the Dons to demonstrate a focus on their own target.
Celtic need just one point to rubber-stamp their league authority, but their hosts, keen to restore their reputation following a poor performance and defeat to Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday, cannot afford to slip further behind them and allow Kilmarnock to steal their thunder by finishing third.
McInnes has a long list of injured players, like Graeme Shinnie, Gary Mackay-Steve, Niall McGinn and Connor McLennan, while Greg Stewart’s hip problem ensures he is not firing on all cylinders, but he will demand application and effort from his outfit.
“It’s what they always give me,” he said, “but when you look at analysing the opposition or how you would want us to play, you’ve also got to take into consideration what is actually available to me in terms of how we play.
“We’re lacking width, we’re lacking speed. I think that it’s not always the best team that wins games at this stage. It’s normally the team with the most focus and certainly that work-rate and commitment to go through the line. That will be key for us. The players always give me that and they’ll need to give me that again, certainly against a good team like Celtic.”
The Dons were winners at Parkhead on the final day of last season when full-back Shay Logan was sent off at the end following a clash with Celtic's Mikael Lustig. Logan, out of action for three months because of an ankle injury, could make his return tomorrow in a game expected to be packed with tension.
“Every game was key in the post-split fixtures last season,” McInnes said. “That was the biggest difference to any other post-split fixtures we’d had, that we had to have some really good form to get that second spot. We had a few clean sheets in that and had some very important wins, none more so than that one at Celtic Park.
“We find ourselves in a similar situation, not for second spot, but to guarantee our European spot. We’ve got wins to gain and to meet our objectives.
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“With only three games to go it’s important that we try and get the three points as quickly as possible.
“We said that the split would sort out everything and who ends up where. We started it off with a good win at Kilmarnock. Last week was a disappointing result at Ibrox but it was tough, for various reasons.
“For us to get what we want, we’re going to have to pull out some big results. We’ve got the two Edinburgh teams after Celtic, but we’re looking at this one as an opportunity to take a step closer to what we want to do.
“Celtic have clearly got plenty motivation to win this game but they probably would have expected to have won the league by now. They’ve still got work to do.
“They will win the league, it’s just a matter of when. We just need to make sure, for our own sake, that they can win the league elsewhere because it would mean that we’ve picked up a very important three points."
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