McINNES RELISHING HOOPS CHALLENGE

ABERDEEN manager Derek McInnes has urged his players to rise to an even greater challenge in competing with Celtic.

The Dons have been Celtic’s closest challengers in the past two seasons.

H o w e v e r, M c I n n e s accepts Celtic have gone up a level under Brendan Rodgers, who has taken 25 points from his first nine Premiership games.

The Hoops will go 10 points clear of secondplaced Aberdeen with a game in hand if they win at Pittodrie tomorrow but McInnes is refusing to accept the champions will run away with the title.

“We feel a bit of pride that we managed to put up some sort of fight in the last couple of years and our team and other teams will feel they have to fight even harder to stay close to them,” he said.

“At the minute, and it’s still early on, they do look like a team that aren’t going to drop as many points as they have maybe done in the last couple of years.

“I don’t see it as disheartening but it’s a bigger challenge and we need to take that challenge on rather than just accept it.”

McInnes does admit that Aberdeen need to do some damage to Celtic themselves to ensure they remain competitive.

“Celtic have to have a poor season by their standards to allow anyone to get close to them and I feel that’s still the case even this time,” he said.

“But it’s a long season and we won’t want to get too far away from them.”