Michael Devlin says Hamilton are capable of causing an upset against Celtic today (Saturday), and says his side have nothing to fear.
Accies skipper Devlin says the pressure will be on Brendan Rogers’s Celtic to maintain their impressive unbeaten run when they visit the SuperSeal Stadium for the Christmas Eve showdown, but the champions could be vulnerable.
He said: “It’s always going to be a difficult game when you play Celtic, or any half of the Old Firm, but I think given how we performed against them at Parkhead we can take massive encouragement from that, going into the game on Saturday.
“At the end of the day the pressure is more on Celtic than it is on ourselves to get a result, so we’ll go into it with confidence, knowing that if we do all the right things there’s the chance of an upset.
“We always tend to do quite well against Celtic at our place, maybe the pitch doesn’t quite suit them to come out playing, and we drew against them here last season, so I think we’ve performed fairly well against them in previous years.
“It’s a good opportunity for us, we’re in a position where every game is crucial for us, and every chance to get a point or three is crucial for us – Saturday is no different to that.
“Getting a result against Celtic would be huge for us. Given how tight it is at the bottom any point gained is certainly massive for every game we play in.
“I watched Partick Thistle at Celtic the other night, I thought they performed really well against them, and that just shows what happens when you go into it with a bit of belief.
“That’s exactly the manner in which the manager will want us to approach the game on Saturday, that every team is capable of causing an upset against Celtic.
“Every point gained now would be a massive boost to confidence and none more so than against the best team in the league.”
It’s another busy week for Hamilton, with today’s clash against Celtic followed by a trip to Aberdeen on Tuesday and a Hogmanay derby against Motherwell at the SuperSeal Stadium the following Saturday.
Devlin says it’s those types of games that get kids interested in playing professional football, and should enjoy the experiences.
He said: “It is a difficult period for us, but that’s why we’re professional footballers, that’s why we want to play the game. The bigger games are the ones that, growing up, you want to play in.
“Unfortunately for us they’ve all come at the same time, but it’s still a good opportunity for us to go and perform well, do our best, and we’ve shown against Hearts and Aberdeen that we’re capable of performing against the bigger teams.
“There’s no reason why we can’t be confident going into these next few games anyway. We’ve already played Celtic and Rangers, a couple of tough games, so we need to try our best to pick up points.”